Nigerians are a boastful lot. They claim to be the continent’s best footballers, best filmmakers and best writers. It was a surprise then when Nigerian designers Bayo Adegbe and Ifeoma Anyanwu admitted that their fashion industry doesn’t compare favourably with their film and literature — made famous when Wole Soyinka was awarded the Nobel and Chinua Achebe and Ben Okri the Booker.
‘Our fashion industry is not that developed. We are still evolving,” said Adegbe. The microbiologist turned designer, and founder of Modela Couture, is in South Africa for the Audi Jo’burg Fashion Week’s autumn/winter collections.
In a first for the event the show will feature designers from the rest of the continent. It’s about time — after all, the event’s owners call themselves African Fashion International.
Egyptian Marie Louis Bishara, who trained in Paris, and Taibo Bacar, winner of the best-established designer at Mozambique’s Fashion Week, will lend further exoticism to the show, which opened on Wednesday at the Sandton Convention Centre.
Backstage on Tuesday, as the designers prepared for their coming shows, we (hacks and photographers) were told repeatedly to get out of the fitting room as the models tried on their frocks. The strange thing, of course, was that some of the people ordering us out were males. A television producer from Nigeria didn’t take this well: ‘When we come back they will be wearing new outfits,” he complained, then asked, ‘When am I going to get decent shots of the models?”
On Thursday Adegbe, Chichi Iyiegbuniwe and Anyanwu showcased their talents as part of a one-off Nigeria fashion show. Adegbe, who is also a model scout and make-up artist, said for a long time the Nigerian industry couldn’t compete with Western styles of dress.
Anyanwu, founder of the O’godo label, said the industry began stirring only when Olusegun Obasanjo banned importation of foreign clothes in the late 1990s. ‘This forced designers to look inwards and we discovered our capabilities,” she said. The company, O’godo (Igbo for clothing of ‘good quality”), was founded four years ago and premiered at Nigeria’s fashion week in 2006.
Anyanwu said Nigerian designers’ use of African fabrics, especially the cotton Ankara cloth, made them competitive in the world market. She has become Nigeria’s tailor of choice for those who want simple, traditional designs made from Ankara, the quintessential Nigerian fabric. ‘Our ability to enhance it has made it possible to compete globally.”
Unlike Adegbe, Anyanwu lauded her government for its support. She recently opened a factory in Abuja where they do mainly made-to-fit tailoring. ‘In the near future we intend to go into ready-to-wear,” she said. Anyanwu said at this stage the company is not big enough to take orders of more than 1 000 units.
Adegbe, winner of Nigeria’s best designer 2003/04, purred his acknowledgement of South Africa’s status as the fashion capital of Africa. ‘Fashion here is a business, unlike in Nigeria. The industry is much more developed. It’s much easier to access finance as designers.” He said if someone were to order 1 000 units to be delivered in a month he wouldn’t be able to meet the order. ‘I simply can’t,” he said, adding: ‘We wish we could get support from our government.” He cast envious glances at the West African Francophone designers who get financial and other support from their governments. Adegbe, who had ambitions of studying medicine before he settled for microbiology, said Nigerians don’t lack creativity. ‘We are as equally creative as other people.”
Adegbe’s collections over the years have showed wild fancies of imagination. His outfits are known for their flamboyance and an overpowering use of spectacle. Occasionally his statuesque dresses are adorned with cowrie shells, stylised fish scales and other exotica.
His collection on show this week had a mermaid theme. ‘I tried to make the dresses shapely and have tried to make them curvy,” he said. From the Mail & Guardian‘s point of view the slender women on show didn’t have the ample curves that might have complemented the designer’s intention.
Explaining the significance of the colours of the dresses in a glossy mish-mash of blue, white, yellow and green, Adegbe said he was inspired by the South African flag. ‘There is a bit of pink, though, to bring in a feminine touch,” he said. On the basis of this collection his designation in Nigeria as ‘popular ethnic designer” is not way off the mark. Indeed, he said he sees his role as ‘representing a Naija girl or Naija boy”.
Representing Nigerianness has been made easier by a softening of Europe’s influence on Nigeria’s dress sense. ‘Back then everybody wore suits to work and weddings. It’s different now. At weddings you don’t see suits and jeans any more,” Adegbe said. When the M&G asked if people wore ‘ethnic” outfits to work on weekdays, he said ‘not yet”.
Both designers were palpably excited by the chance to showcase their costumes on the South African stage. ‘This gives me a platform to market myself and get exposure,” Anyanwu said.
The Audi Jo’burg Fashion Week has, for the first time, been scheduled so that designers can get their collections into shops and fashion magazines in time for South Africa’s winter.