For five days, from Wednesday 28 October to Sunday 1 November 2026, Victoria Island became the centre of African fashion. The 16th Lagos Fashion Week staged its main runway programme from 29 to 31 October in the LagosFW Tents at the Federal Palace Hotel, with an opening party and offsite presentations bookending the week.
This year’s theme, CRAFTED: Heritage. Innovation. Circular Futures, asked designers to put handwork and sustainability first. Organisers have not yet released attendance figures for 2026. Last year’s edition drew roughly 15,000 guests and more than 60 designers across its five days.
Across the schedule, a handful of labels treated clothing less as product and more as sculpture. These six stayed with us.
The collections
Sevon Dejana — Out of Body
Few shows generated as much online chatter as Sevon Dejana’s. The label built drama through surface: gold sequins scattered over tulle, beadwork climbing structured jackets, feathers breaking the line of a shoulder. Each look was shaped as much as sewn, holding the body inside a deliberate silhouette. The sculptural approach invites comparison with Daniel Roseberry’s couture for Schiaparelli, though Dejana’s palette and swagger are entirely his own.
Onalaja — REBIRTH
Onalaja’s Spring/Summer 2027 offer was a study in patience. Dense, painstaking beading met bold curves that followed and celebrated the female figure rather than disguising it. The pieces commanded attention on the runway, and the message was clear: craft can be a vehicle for confidence and self-definition.
Hertunba — New World
Hertunba opened the second night of shows and stayed true to the label’s signature. New World relied on clean architecture punctuated by detail: a high beaded halter, a jewelled waistband, careful proportion. It was an evolution rather than a reinvention, and a reminder that a consistent design language is its own kind of artistry.
Imprint South Africa — EMBO: Chapter 2
The South African label used print and colour as storytelling devices. Light blue patterned separates were armoured with beaded chest pieces and finished with fringed headdresses, bridging South African heritage and contemporary dressing. The finale, with designer and models bowing together, felt like a thank-you to everyone behind the clothes.
Cute-Saint — Mo Sá, Mo Wò
Designer Muftau Femi Ajose turned his slot into theatre. An Egungun masquerade and live drumming opened the show, tying the collection to Yoruba ritual and to his own childhood. What followed was easy and fluid: mustard shirting and trousers swept with white wave prints, soft layers and inventive fabric pairings. The clothes were only part of the experience.
Oshobor — A Different Kind of Human
Oshobor mined Edo (Benin) heritage for a collection obsessed with texture. Fringe ran through almost every look, from hand-worked wool forms to orange-and-black feathered skirts, giving the garments an almost architectural mass. Some pieces had first appeared as a living installation at the week’s opening party; on the runway, the full concept came into view.
Lagos, – a different shade of Paris
An orange-and-black feathered skirt, Oshobor look 6.
Paris remains the industry’s commercial summit. Its Spring/Summer 2027 womenswear week ran from 28 September to 6 October 2026, with 68 runway shows and 101 events on the provisional calendar (Business Today). It generated a record $795.6 million in earned media value, according to Karla Otto and Lefty, up 59% on the previous year (FashionUnited). A 2016 French Fashion Institute study estimated that a single Paris fashion week brings about €1.2 billion into the city (The Local).
Lagos works at a different scale, and that is partly the point. Paris sells finished luxury to a global audience; Lagos is where much of the craft that luxury borrows from is shown on its own terms. This year’s focus on heritage and circularity builds on the event’s 2025 Earthshot Prize win in the “Build a Waste-Free World” category (Rio Times). Few major weeks can claim that kind of sustainability credential.
The gap is commercial. Lagos publishes guest numbers but no count of trade buyers or wholesale orders, so it is hard to measure how much business the shows generate (Omiren Styles). Closing that gap, by turning attention into stockists and orders, is what would move Lagos from inspiration source to a true counterpart to Paris.
The Sevon Dejana conversation showed the reverse traffic too. When a Lagos collection is debated in the same breath as a Paris couture house, African design is no longer the reference point; it is part of the conversation.
