How 17 African Designers, Tiwa Savage & Burna Boy Shut Down Lagos at the Design Fashion Africa Show.
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Hey guys, it’s another edition of my UNFILTERED REALNESS. We’re officially in the fashion season in Nigeria. And if you work in fashion you’d definitely be feeling the heat already, because it’s an exciting time but also very stressful. I for one find it extremely stressful and expensive, you’ll get what I mean by expensive, if you’re like me who doesn’t wear rented pieces to events.
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Design Fashion Africa debuted their fashion platform on the 3rd to the 5th of October 2019, at the Eko convention centre VI. So basically the DFA is a competition platform, that trains and mentors young designers.
The first two days kicked off with master classes and conferences from top pioneers in the African fashion industry. I’m talking about the likes of ITUEN BASI, DAVID TLALE, MOOFA, MAI ATAFO, just to name a few. There were also two big exhibitions areas, they called the “Market place”, where you could find various designers and shop their pieces off their rake, some of my favorite vendors at the market place were, TURFAH, COTTON LOOPS, OADAH JEWELRY, HOUSEHOLD OF PANACHE and KAHDSOLA. Absolutely loved all their stuff. Although I didn’t see a reason why the hall was divided into two exhibiting areas, because they all sold similar products, plus the closest half to the main entrance was a little more crowded than the other, which some of the vendors complained about.
Altogether there were very little crowd at the first two days of the event.
The third day of the event was the runway shows and the end of the competition, which three finalists would compete on stage for the prize of a million naira, a roundtrip sponsored by Ethiopian air and a mentorship with a top designer.
The truth of the matter is I was very unsure about the DFA platform. They have the right vision, I love what the platform stands for, but I’m not sure it was well communicated. Everything was so vague and lot of people were asking questions. Even at the press conference I attended it just wasn’t clear, it was like they knew what they wanted to do, but don’t have the words to express it. But I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best because I have a good rapport with the PR company that handled some aspects of the event.
Fast forward to the finale day. On the invitation card I got, the event was to start for 6pm but it didn’t start until 9:45pm. I repeat, this event started FOUR HOURS LATE!! Now that’s a record.
The show started with numerous cultural performances, some of which were unnecessary but we sat through them anyway. Then there was a flag presentation of all the 54 countries in Africa, which I don’t care for, mostly because I didn’t wait this long to be seeing some flag presentation or Atilogwu dancers. I was over it at this point, it’s past 10pm and the runway show hasn’t started.
The hosts for the night were IDIA AISIEN and ESO OKOLOCHA. And the judges of the competition were ITUEN BASI, TOSIN of THE STYLE INFIDEL, and APRIL BY JUNE.
Seventeen amazing designers graced the runway stage with their beautiful collections. I have to give it to the organizers of the show, although the runway shows started super late, it was extremely organized and professional.
My favorite collections from the night were, ROKSANA, MEKLIT.ME from Ethiopia, SEVON DEJANA, and 14 ZERO SEVEN.
I absolutely loved how spicey and colorful ROKSANA’s collection was. The pieces are so chic, functional, and summer-like. You can literally wear them to work, to the beach, for date nights etc.
Ethiopian designer MEKLIT.ME was another designer that stood out for me. His pieces were very street style, they were clothes you can wear this fall season, the designer made use of tribal prints and leather. Also loved how the model came in stomping the runway stage. It was nice.
Another designer I loved very much was SEVON DEJANA. His pieces were couture, very luxurious, giving me vintage John Galliano vibe, I loved the metallic organza pieces. Also I have to talk about his song selections, I mean the models strutted in to SUPER QUEEN by RUPAUL, and closed his show to QUEENDOM by AURORA. I thought his entire show was sickening!
My favorite show of that night though had to be 14 ZERO SEVEN. The collection was bright, joyful, optimistic, some of the pieces were made from recycled fabrics, but are totally wearable and modern. The collection was completely timely and timeless at the same time. The closing piece was a long cape I absolutely need in my wardrobe, I named it in my head THE CAPE OF MANY COLORS”(Lol). I enjoyed how the models danced in for their final walk, which told a joyful story about the collection. Big ups to the designer.
After all seventeen designers showed, the top 3 finalist for the DFA competition came out each with their 5 piece collection. I was stunned when the came out. All three of them literally deserved to win. Their pieces were amazingly creative, and the tailoring were quintessential. The winner of the competition was JIBRIL BUKAR. Congratulations to him.
The night ended with performances from Tiwa Savage, Burna Boy and an Ethiopian Singer.Tiwa’s outfit which was a white line all over moon top and legging from French designer, Marrie Serre’s Fall 2019 Radiation Collection was paired perfectly with a Versace necklace showing every single one of her curves.
With recent posts on social media reminding us why she’s still the hottest female artist in Africa, Tiwa Savage, she killed the Design Fashion Africa stage.
It was a great event altogether. I just hope they try punctuality, if there’s a sophomore edition.
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