Hi Starlights, welcome to another edition of Realness Corner with me, Fola Francis.
The fashion season is almost upon us, and the stylish kids of Lagos cannot wait for it to be here, me included (haha). So right now we’re jumping at any chance to play dress up.
I attended the grand finale of the “Fashion Finest Africa” show and it was beyond my expectations. The fashion show started on Friday the 25th of May and ended on Monday the 28th, which also happened to be a public holiday, just in case you didn’t notice.
As soon as I got the invitation I told myself I was only going to go for the finale show, because it’s the finale duh. The venue was the Federal Palace hotel, which is a massive upgrade from the venue they used for last year’s edition. (I love a good upgrade story)
I got to the venue with my best friend who happens to be an amazing presenter, she was wearing a simple floral dress with blue stiletto mules. And I was in an oversized halfway sleeve jacket, paired with my Leoprint PJ pants and Alexander Wang boots.
The black carpet area was massive, the exhibition area was nice, the food vendors were on point, except the fact that most of them didn’t have a POS machine (shame!).
The show started about 45 minutes late, which gave me enough time to go around, greet friends, chill and take photos, and awkward run-ins with industry famzers.
During that time I ran into Opara Boy, so as soon as the show was about to start, we both walked in like a timepiece and went straight to the front row.
The designers that stood out the most for me were Tai-lore, Mai Atafo and Gavachy.
The reason why we paid attention to Tai-lore was because of the styling, which was done by Tosin (The Style Infidel). The designer’s pieces were mostly power jackets made in an urban way, simple shirts, and majority of the pants were ankle lengths. The stylist then styled the models with scarfs and headwarmers, like that wasn’t woke enough, they were all wearing laced socks and carrying mini Ghana-Must-Go’s. (The model all looked hella wavy).
Mai Atafo collaborated with Nivea for a black and white collection.
There was no wow factor about the collection, it was just what you would expect from Mai Atafo. Although the pieces that stood out for me was one sheer jumpsuits, then a layered lace skirt paired with a white shirt and a massive neck bow.
And then there was Gavachy.
Gavachy honestly made my list of designers I’d like to work with for LFW 2018. His pieces would leave you feeling all Japanesey in an African way. (Does that even make any sense?)
The Ghanaian designer brought it last night, and we were ready to be his muse. The use of the Kente fabric in his collection couldn’t be overemphasised, I loved every bit of it.
After the show there was the after partaay, and it was very lit y’all! I nearly danced my existence off.
Check out my Instagram @fola_xo for more tea.
