Noticeable Features at the LFDW 2013- Custom-Made Prints

Designers in Nigeria are doing everything humanly possible to notch up their game to meet and possibly surpass world fashion standards.

Gone are the days when designers relied solely on Daviva, Vlisco, High Target and the rest of the makers of African prints popularly called Ankara to make outfits, these days beautiful pieces of customised prints are daily churned out by various designers, making it possible to have both an exclusive design in a exclusive print too! isn't that good news??? To me it is!
I remember vividly a jacket made from Ankara by one of the top designers in Nigeria (lipssealed on the name of the designer)  in a particular African print, the print was as ubiquitous as mosquitoes in water logged area in an under developed country and to top it all, the boyfriend blazer was about N30,000!!!
At this year's Lagos Fashion and Design Week, I was impressed the large quantity of custom-made prints in all types of Fabrics.

JEWEL BY LISA
 



To see more click here

MAKI OH





To see the rest of Maki Oh's collection, click here

GTBank Lagos Fashion & Design Week 2013: Alter Ego

 This is probably quite old but as the saying goes: 'Better late...' y'all know the rest. lol

 I remember sitting in the audience and promising that I was never going to do a critique of Alter Ego's collections(not breaking my promises completely, anyway). I'm a big fan of Alter Ego because she designs for the contemporary African woman and her fabric designs are always just out of this world. The first time her visited her showroom in Dolphin Estate, there was one particular piece that struck me and it was the Lagos Traffic Shirt! The shirt made me marvel at how a person could just manage to incorporate the daily struggles in Lagos state to fashion;. The style of the shirt; howbeit bland, the prints was enough statement.

So I definitely knew that it was no coincidence that her prints ruled at the Lagos Fashion and Design Week 2013. I was awed by her fabrics. I like how she played with different colours of thesame fabric to bringing a whole new dimension to an outfit; I'm a sucker for mixing and matching of fabrics. My favourites from this collection are her pants; they look so comfortable, provide good fit and yet are very stylish and are attention grabbers!

Sit back and check out their SS14 collection after the cut.

Stylish return to our roots in African Prints (1)

African prints have always been in vogue but these days,the traditional styles have been ditched for trendier, sleekier and more modern styles. In the past, our parents were the major enthusiast of the traditional 'Iro and Buba' but we find that these days the younger generation have embraced it almost more than the older ones and even the traditional 'Oleku' have taken new creative dimensions.

Also, we'll notice that African prints has transcended the days of limited outings, where people were only comfortable wearing the prints at family events, owambe, Sunday services and Friday outings, it has become a major catch at various events, ranging from red carpet events, to on-stage performances, to video clips and even the Beach!

Just the other day, I was at Moofa's flagship store in Dolphin Estate when I noticed a modern version of the traditional wrapper and blouse which was made of chiffon in African print, styled as a long wrapper and a shirt blouse,and the likes of Alter Ego haven't neglected our roots which is evident in her Nwando and Aso Oke Oleku outfit(Pictures of these will feature in the part 2 of this article).

For a lot Africans, with special reference to Nigerians, there are always parties to attend over the weekend where one aso ebi or the other has been selected to ensure a uniform, glamour-filled and a colourful event, but the headache of most people, especially women is that the styling of the material selected. As a result of that, I have decided to do a special picture filled article of the different ways you can 'mess' around with your African Prints in the most fashionable and stylish manner.

View African eye candy after the cut...