Houses / Nigeria
Nigerian fashion designers to know
Nigerian fashion runs from Lisa Folawiyo’s beaded ankara and Ejiro Amos Tafiri’s drapery to Orange Culture’s gender-fluid menswear, Kenneth Ize’s aso oke, Lagos Space Programme’s adire, IAMISIGO’s wearable art and NKWO’s Dakala cloth, with tailoring from Tokyo James and Emmy Kasbit, Fruché’s womenswear, Bloke’s knitwear and Andrea Iyamah’s swimwear. Every milestone carries its source.
How this guide works
What counts, and what we leave out
This is an introduction, not a ranking. We chose twelve labels that between them cover Nigerian womenswear, menswear, knitwear, textile craft and waste-led design, from Lisa Folawiyo, founded in 2005, to labels that showed in Berlin, Milan and Copenhagen in 2025 and 2026, and that have a public record we could check. The guide covers designers who are Nigerian, wherever they work: Andrea Iyamah runs her label from Toronto and Lagos, Bubu Ogisi works between Lagos, Nairobi and Accra, and Tokyo James built his label between Lagos and London. Diaspora labels whose designers are not Nigerian are outside its scope.
Lagos facts come from Lagos Fashion Week’s official event guides for 2024 and 2025 and its designer directory, which we read ourselves. Calendar facts abroad come from the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana’s official Milan womenswear calendars from February 2025 to September 2026, the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode’s Paris menswear calendars from June 2023 to June 2026, and, for Berlin, the official July 2026 schedule and the Berlin Senate’s review of the January–February 2026 week. Prize facts come from the LVMH Prize’s own pages, the International Woolmark Prize and Zalando, and museum facts from the V&A’s collection records. Where sources disagree on a founding year, as they do for IAMISIGO, NKWO and Ejiro Amos Tafiri, the profile says so.
Facts were checked on 22 October 2026. If you represent one of these labels and see something out of date, send us a correction.
At a glance
The labels at a glance
| Label | Designer | Since | Known for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lisa Folawiyo | Lisa Folawiyo | 2005 | Ready-to-wear: ready-to-wear cut from ankara prints and hand-dyed adire, finished with dense hand beading |
| Orange Culture | Adebayo Oke-Lawal | 2011 | Menswear: gender-fluid menswear that uses colour, skirts and softness to question narrow ideas of masculinity |
| Kenneth Ize | Kenneth Ize | 2013 | Textile heritage: striped tailoring and fringed dresses in aso oke, the hand-woven Yoruba cloth, made with his own weavers |
| Lagos Space Programme | Adeju Thompson | 2018 | Textile heritage: genderless clothing that reworks Yoruba adire and tailoring through research and collaboration with artisans |
| Tokyo James | Iniye Tokyo James | 2015 | Menswear: tailoring that takes Savile Row structure and breaks it with unexpected colour and materials |
| IAMISIGO | Bubu Ogisi | 2009 | Textile heritage: wearable art made with artisan communities across Africa, from hand-woven wool to recycled fishing net |
| Emmy Kasbit | Emmanuel Okoro | 2014 | Menswear: tailoring built around Akwete, the hand-woven cloth of Abia State in eastern Nigeria |
| Fruché | Frank Aghuno | 2014 | Ready-to-wear: playful, sensual womenswear drawing on Igbo culture and precolonial feminism, often trimmed with feathers |
| Bloke | Faith Oluwajimi | 2015 | Streetwear and contemporary: experimental, androgynous knitwear made with Nigerian knitters and artisans |
| NKWO | Nkwo Onwuka | 2012 | Slow and sustainable: Dakala cloth, a fabric pieced from denim and cutting-table waste to look like strip-woven cloth |
| Andrea Iyamah | Andrea Dumebi Iyamah | 2011 | Ready-to-wear: boldly coloured swimwear and resortwear inspired by African cultures, travel and nature |
| Ejiro Amos Tafiri | Ejiro Amos Tafiri | 2010 | Ready-to-wear: draped womenswear that blends African dress forms with detailed modern construction |
Profiles
Who they are and what they make.
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Ready-to-wear · Lagos
Lisa Folawiyo
Lisa Folawiyo founded her Lagos label in 2005 under the name Jewel by Lisa; the V&A notes that she trained as a lawyer rather than in fashion. Her ready-to-wear starts from ankara, the wax-resist printed cotton worn across West Africa, reworked with quilting and heavy beading, and Lagos Fashion Week’s profile credits the beadwork to the label’s own craftspeople. In 2022 the V&A acquired pieces from her Spring/Summer 2021 collection, among them a beaded dress hand-dyed in adire by the Ido Aro dyers of Abeokuta. Lagos Fashion Week lists her runway shows from 2014 onwards, and she showed off-site, by invitation, on the last day of its 2025 edition.
- Since
- 2005
- Makes
- Womenswear and accessories
- Trained
- Trained as a lawyer, with no formal fashion training
- 2005 Founds her label in Lagos, then called Jewel by Lisa. Source ↗
- 2014 Shows on the runway at Lagos Fashion & Design Week. Source ↗
- 2022 The V&A acquires pieces from her Spring/Summer 2021 collection, including an adire dress dyed in Abeokuta. Source ↗
- 2 November 2025 Shows off-site, by invitation, on the final day of Lagos Fashion Week. Source ↗
-
Adebayo Oke-Lawal, a self-taught designer, founded Orange Culture in Lagos in 2011 as a menswear label meant to challenge narrow ideas of masculinity; the V&A describes how it has grown more gender-fluid, with skirts as a staple and colours often coded as feminine. The museum holds ensembles from S.E.N.S.E.S (Autumn/Winter 2016) and Flower Boy (Autumn/Winter 2020), a title that reclaims an insult he heard as a boy. Everything is designed and produced in Lagos, FashionUnited reported in 2026. The label was an LVMH Prize semi-finalist in 2014 and showed at Lagos Fashion Week in 2024 and 2025. It returned to Berlin Fashion Week in early 2026 and showed there again on 3 July 2026 as one of the season’s Berlin Contemporary winners.
- Since
- 2011
- Makes
- Menswear and womenswear, ready-to-wear and made to order, designed and produced in Lagos
- Trained
- Self-taught
- 2011 Adebayo Oke-Lawal founds Orange Culture in Lagos. Source ↗
- 2014 Named a semi-finalist for the LVMH Prize. Source ↗
- 2021 The V&A acquires ensembles from S.E.N.S.E.S (AW16) and Flower Boy (AW20). Source ↗
- 2 November 2025 Shows off-site, by invitation, at Lagos Fashion Week. Source ↗
- 2026 Returns to Berlin Fashion Week, held from 30 January to 2 February 2026. Source ↗
- 3 July 2026 Shows on the runway at Berlin Fashion Week for SS27, as a Berlin Contemporary winner. Source ↗
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Textile heritage · Lagos
Kenneth Ize
Kenneth Ize, who grew up partly in Austria and studied at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, launched his label at Lagos Fashion Week in 2013 and relaunched it for Spring/Summer 2016 after a break for his MA, Lagos Fashion Week records. His work centres on aso oke, the prestigious hand-woven Yoruba cloth: the V&A says a community of 10 to 15 weavers makes it at his factory in Ilorin, and that weaving enough for one jacket takes around 24 hours over a week. He was an LVMH Prize finalist in 2019, made his Paris runway debut in February 2020 with Naomi Campbell closing the show, and in 2021 co-designed a capsule with Karl Lagerfeld. In early 2026 he showed at Berlin Fashion Week for the first time, with a collection titled Joy.
- Since
- 2013
- Makes
- Menswear and, since 2019, womenswear, in textiles woven for the label
- Trained
- University of Applied Arts Vienna, including an MA
- 2013 Launches his label at Lagos Fashion Week. Source ↗
- 2019 Finalist for the LVMH Prize. Source ↗
- February 2020 Makes his Paris Fashion Week debut with Autumn/Winter 2020, closed by Naomi Campbell. Source ↗
- July 2021 Karl Lagerfeld releases a gender-neutral capsule co-designed with him, with colour patterns drawn from aso oke. Source ↗
- 2022 The V&A acquires a multicoloured aso oke ensemble from his Spring/Summer 2021 collection. Source ↗
- 2026 Shows at Berlin Fashion Week, held from 30 January to 2 February 2026, for the first time. Source ↗
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Textile heritage · Lagos
Lagos Space Programme
Adeju Thompson
Adeju Thompson studied fashion design in England, moved back to Nigeria in 2013, gained experience at the Lagos label Maki Oh and founded Lagos Space Programme in 2018, the LVMH Prize records; it made the label a semi-finalist in 2021. Thompson is non-binary and uses they/them. The label works in numbered projects: the V&A holds pieces from Project 5 (Spring/Summer 2021), which explored the Yoruba Gélédé ritual through adire, the indigo resist-dyed cloth, and from Project 6, a celebration of the orisha Osun. It won the International Woolmark Prize at the Petit Palais in Paris on 15 May 2023, with looks using natural indigo, recycled wool and hardware handcrafted by artisans in Benin City. It presented on the official Paris menswear calendar in June 2023, January 2024 and January 2025, and showed at Lagos Fashion Week in October 2024.
- Since
- 2018
- Makes
- Genderless clothing and accessories made in small batches, plus textile hangings
- Trained
- Fashion design in England
- 2018 Adeju Thompson founds Lagos Space Programme. Source ↗
- 2021 Named a semi-finalist for the LVMH Prize. Source ↗
- 15 May 2023 Wins the International Woolmark Prize at the Petit Palais in Paris. Source ↗
- 19 January 2024 Presents FW24 on the official Paris menswear calendar. Source ↗
- 26 October 2024 Shows at Lagos Fashion Week. Source ↗
- 24 January 2025 Presents FW25 on the official Paris menswear calendar. Source ↗
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Menswear · Lagos
Tokyo James
Iniye Tokyo James
Iniye Tokyo James studied mathematics in London and worked as a stylist, directed digital campaigns and launched a digital publication, Rough UK, before founding his label in Lagos after moving there from the UK, the LVMH Prize records. FashionUnited dated the launch to 2015 and described a Nigerian-British label working between London and Lagos, with tailoring that borrows from Savile Row and then breaks its rules through colour and material. He launched his Autumn/Winter 2021 collection during Milan Fashion Week in January 2021 and was an LVMH Prize finalist in 2022. The official Milan womenswear calendar listed the label as a digital show in March 2025 and as runway shows on 28 September 2025, for a Spring/Summer 2026 collection called Chaos, and on 28 February 2026; it was not on the September 2026 calendar we checked.
- Since
- 2015
- Makes
- Menswear and womenswear, shown in Milan
- Trained
- Mathematics in London
- 2015 Launches his label. Source ↗
- January 2021 Launches his Autumn/Winter 2021 collection, Ogidi Okunrin (The Strong Man), during Milan Fashion Week. Source ↗
- 2022 Finalist for the LVMH Prize. Source ↗
- 3 March 2025 Listed as a digital show on the official Milan Fashion Week calendar. Source ↗
- 28 September 2025 Shows SS26 on the runway in Milan, on the official calendar. Source ↗
- 28 February 2026 Shows FW26 on the runway in Milan, on the official calendar. Source ↗
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Textile heritage · Lagos, Nairobi and Accra
IAMISIGO
Bubu Ogisi
Bubu Ogisi, who is Nigerian, runs IAMISIGO between Lagos, Nairobi and Accra, working with small artisan communities across the continent on heritage textile techniques and unconventional, often recycled, materials. The V&A dates the label to 2009; Lagos Fashion Week’s directory gives 2013. The museum holds an ensemble from Gods of the Wilderness (Spring/Summer 2019): a hand-woven wool dress with yarn dyed in Kano State, and a veil of recycled fishing net made with the artist Chioma Ebenema. IAMISIGO won the Zalando Visionary Award in January 2025 and in August showed Dual Mandate at Copenhagen Fashion Week, using cotton from Uganda and Kenya, sisal from Tanzania and raffia and jute from Nigeria. It was an LVMH Prize semi-finalist in 2026 and presented digitally on the official Milan calendar that March.
- Since
- 2009
- Makes
- Womenswear and menswear conceived as wearable art, plus installations
- 2009 Bubu Ogisi founds IAMISIGO, by the V&A’s dating. Source ↗
- 29 January 2025 Wins the Zalando Visionary Award at Copenhagen Fashion Week. Source ↗
- 6 August 2025 Shows its SS26 collection, Dual Mandate, at Copenhagen Fashion Week. Source ↗
- 31 October 2025 Shows off-site, by invitation, at Lagos Fashion Week. Source ↗
- 2026 Named a semi-finalist for the LVMH Prize. Source ↗
- 2 March 2026 Presents digitally on the official Milan Fashion Week calendar. Source ↗
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Menswear · Lagos
Emmy Kasbit
Emmanuel Okoro
Emmanuel Okoro studied computer science in Calabar and learned pattern-making and cutting while working at production and fashion houses before launching Emmy Kasbit in Lagos in 2014, Industrie Africa reported in 2020; the name grew out of a college nickname. Each collection starts from Akwete, the hand-woven cloth of his home state, Abia, made with artisan weavers, and the label began with menswear before adding womenswear built on the same tailoring. Okoro won Lagos Fashion Week’s Fashion Focus Fund, a grant with a year of business mentoring, in 2018. The week lists him on its runway most years since 2017, including on 25 October 2024 and 30 October 2025, and his site lists collections through Spring/Summer 2026.
- Since
- 2014
- Makes
- Menswear, womenswear and bespoke tailoring
- Trained
- Computer science in Calabar; learned pattern-making and cutting on the job
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Ready-to-wear · Lagos
Fruché
Frank Aghuno
Frank Aghuno founded Fruché in Lagos in 2014 while studying finance at the University of Lagos, with no formal fashion training; the name joins Frank with Uche, one of his Igbo names, the V&A notes. His womenswear sets out to show that feminism was present in precolonial Nigeria rather than imported from Europe, and feathers recur as a nod to the bird of creation. In 2023 the V&A acquired a black lace dress from Free Spirits II, his Spring/Summer 2020 collection, trimmed with ostrich feathers dyed to look like flames and inspired by the Igbo Agbogho Mmuo maiden-spirit performances. To manage costs, collections are made in small batches once orders arrive. Fruché first showed at Lagos Fashion Week in 2014 and was on its schedule again in 2024 and 2025.
- Since
- 2014
- Makes
- Womenswear ready-to-wear and occasionwear, made in small batches
- Trained
- Finance at the University of Lagos; no formal fashion training
-
Streetwear and contemporary · Lagos
Bloke
Faith Oluwajimi
Faith Oluwajimi, born in Ogun State, studied agriculture and taught himself to knit on a domestic machine before moving to Lagos in 2015 and starting Bloke there, Nataal reported in 2019. The label treats knitwear, a category Nataal called largely overlooked in contemporary African fashion, as its field for experiment, working with a small community of knitters, textile artists and artisans and with locally sourced materials, according to Lagos Fashion Week. Bloke made its catwalk debut at Lagos Fashion Week in 2018, won the first Emerge ALÁRA award from the Lagos concept store ALÁRA, and was an LVMH Prize semi-finalist in 2023. It returned to the Lagos runway on 31 October 2025.
- Since
- 2015
- Makes
- Knitwear-led menswear and womenswear
- Trained
- Studied agriculture; taught himself to knit on a domestic machine
- 2015 Faith Oluwajimi founds Bloke in Lagos. Source ↗
- 2018 Makes its catwalk debut at Lagos Fashion Week. Source ↗
- July 2019 Nataal reports that Oluwajimi has won the inaugural Emerge ALÁRA award. Source ↗
- 2023 Named a semi-finalist for the LVMH Prize. Source ↗
- 31 October 2025 Shows at Lagos Fashion Week. Source ↗
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Slow and sustainable · Abuja
NKWO
Nkwo Onwuka
Nkwo Onwuka first launched her label, named after herself, in 2007, The Stylemate reported; the brand dates its relaunch to 2012, after which it put more weight on traditional craft and on cutting textile waste. Its signature is Dakala cloth, developed in the studio from strips of discarded denim and cutting-table offcuts sewn together in a way inspired by strip weaving; the V&A notes that it was nominated in the fashion category of Beazley Designs of the Year 2020. The museum holds a Dakala ensemble from WHO KNEW (Spring/Summer 2019), shown at Lagos Fashion Week in November 2018 and made in Abuja, with a gele cut from a checked Ghana-must-go bag. NKWO won the Bicester Collection Award for Emerging Designers at the CNMI Sustainable Fashion Awards in Milan in September 2022, and showed at Lagos Fashion Week on 1 November 2025.
- Since
- 2012
- Makes
- Womenswear and accessories, made with artisans in limited runs
- 2012 Nkwo Onwuka relaunches her label. Source ↗
- November 2018 Shows WHO KNEW, for SS19, at Lagos Fashion Week. Source ↗
- 25 September 2022 Wins the Bicester Collection Award for Emerging Designers at the CNMI Sustainable Fashion Awards, at Teatro alla Scala in Milan. Source ↗
- 1 November 2025 Shows at Lagos Fashion Week. Source ↗
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Ready-to-wear · Toronto and Lagos
Andrea Iyamah
Andrea Dumebi Iyamah
Photo: Vickywrite, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
Andrea Dumebi Iyamah, born in 1993, started her label at 17 while studying for a university degree, teaching herself tailoring along the way; the brand dates its founding to 2011 and its first official swimwear collection to 2013, the year Lagos Fashion Week’s directory gives for its launch. Swimwear and resortwear in strong colours remain the core, alongside ready-to-wear and bridal. The label says it operates from Toronto, Lagos and New York; its stores page lists a shop on Victoria Island in Lagos and a head office in the Toronto area. It showed regularly at Lagos Fashion Week between 2015 and 2022, previewed its Fall/Winter 2024 collection at a brunch in New York during fashion week in September 2024, and launched Spring/Summer 2025 with a five-day programme at Cap Juluca, a Belmond hotel in Anguilla.
- Since
- 2011
- Makes
- Swimwear, resortwear, ready-to-wear, bridal and accessories
- Trained
- Self-taught in tailoring, while studying for a university degree
-
Ready-to-wear · Lagos
Ejiro Amos Tafiri
Ejiro Amos Tafiri launched her eponymous label in March 2010 after working at the Nigerian houses Out of Africa, Zizi Ethnic Clothing and Tiffany Amber, Lagos Fashion Week’s profile says, although the same page lists 2011 as the launch year. Her womenswear blends African dress forms with detailed modern construction, using indigenous fabrics, layering and mixed textures, and her handling of drapery earned her the nickname Nigeria’s drape queen. Alongside the label she works on education and skills for the fashion trade, and her site links to the Ejiro Amos Tafiri School of Design. Lagos Fashion Week lists her runway shows from 2014, and she showed off-site there on 23 October 2024, at the Bvlgari Tower on Victoria Island, and on 2 November 2025, in Onikan.
- Since
- 2010
- Makes
- Womenswear, including dresses, kaftans and boubous, with a smaller men’s line
- Trained
- Worked at Out of Africa, Zizi Ethnic Clothing and Tiffany Amber before launching her own label
- March 2010 Launches her eponymous label. Source ↗
- 2014 Shows on the runway at Lagos Fashion & Design Week. Source ↗
- 23 October 2024 Shows off-site, by invitation, at the Bvlgari Tower on Victoria Island during Lagos Fashion Week. Source ↗
- 2 November 2025 Shows off-site in Onikan during Lagos Fashion Week. Source ↗
In person
Where to see Nigerian design in person
Lagos is the place to start: Lagos Fashion Week runs 28 October–1 November 2026. Its 2025 schedule had Emmy Kasbit and Fruché on 30 October, Bloke and IAMISIGO on 31 October, NKWO on 1 November, and Orange Culture, Ejiro Amos Tafiri and Lisa Folawiyo, all off-site, on 2 November. Our Lagos Fashion Week guide explains how the week works.
Abroad, Tokyo James has shown on the official Milan calendar, Lagos Space Programme on the Paris menswear calendar, and Orange Culture and Kenneth Ize in Berlin; Orange Culture was back on the Berlin schedule in July 2026. Our fashion week calendar has the dates.
For museum pieces, the V&A in London holds work by Lisa Folawiyo, Orange Culture, Kenneth Ize, Lagos Space Programme, IAMISIGO, NKWO and Fruché. For the wider market, see our Nigeria desk and the Nigeria modelling guide; for labels from other countries, browse our houses section.
More designer guides: South Korean fashion designers to know · Indonesian fashion designers to know · Malaysian fashion designers to know · Thai fashion designers to know · Vietnamese fashion designers to know · Japanese fashion designers to know · Mexican fashion designers to know · Brazilian fashion designers to know · Chinese fashion designers to know · Indian fashion designers to know
Sources
Sources
Each milestone above links its own source. These are every page we relied on, checked on the date shown.
Represent one of these labels and spotted an error? Send a correction with a link to the record.
Quick answers
Nigerian designers, answered
Which Nigerian designers show at international fashion weeks?
- Tokyo James was on the official Milan calendar as a digital show in March 2025 and with runway shows on 28 September 2025 and 28 February 2026. Lagos Space Programme presented on the official Paris menswear calendar in June 2023, January 2024 and January 2025. Kenneth Ize and Orange Culture both showed at Berlin Fashion Week in early 2026, Ize for the first time, and Orange Culture showed in Berlin again on 3 July 2026. IAMISIGO showed at Copenhagen Fashion Week in August 2025 and presented digitally in Milan in March 2026.
Has a Nigerian designer won the LVMH Prize?
- None of the labels in this guide has won the main prize. Kenneth Ize was a finalist in 2019 and Tokyo James in 2022, and Orange Culture (2014), Lagos Space Programme (2021), Bloke (2023) and IAMISIGO (2026) were semi-finalists.
Which Nigerian label won the International Woolmark Prize?
- Lagos Space Programme, Adeju Thompson’s label, won the 2023 International Woolmark Prize at the Petit Palais in Paris on 15 May 2023. The prize was worth 200,000 Australian dollars.
Which museums hold work by Nigerian designers?
- The V&A in London holds pieces by Lisa Folawiyo (Spring/Summer 2021), Orange Culture (Autumn/Winter 2016 and 2020), Kenneth Ize (Spring/Summer 2021), Lagos Space Programme (Projects 5 and 6), IAMISIGO (Spring/Summer 2019), NKWO (Spring/Summer 2019) and Fruché (Spring/Summer 2020).
When is Lagos Fashion Week 2026?
- Lagos Fashion Week 2026 runs from 28 October to 1 November 2026; its 2026 schedule was not yet on the official site when we checked on 22 October 2026. The 2025 edition ran from 29 October to 2 November 2025.