konknaijaboy | On 15, Apr 2015

BlackNBold Fashion House presents some 15 Emerging Nigerian Fashion Designers

to lookout for in the year 2015. The aim of this series is to

encourage young and upcoming fashion designers in Nigeria. The list

was compiled by a board of fashion judges who did a comprehensive

research into the world of  fashion proteges in Nigeria.

 

 

1) Oluwatobi Akintoye (T16 World of Fashion)

 

Oluwatobi is the creative director and founder of T16 world of

Fashion. A final year student of the  University of Lagos, Akoka where

she is studying Guidance and Counseling. She began her career as a

tailor, but because of her humble beginning, passion for fashion and

drive to be successful, this helped facilitate her rise through the

ranks, first as a tailor and now as a designer. In her sojourn into

the beautiful world of fashion she had the opportunity to be mentored

by the likes of Mai Atafo and Lanre Da Silva.

 

Her brand is an effortless, timeless and wearable Line that reflects

the kind of woman she

is herself, which is strong, bold, fun, unique and fearless.  She was

part of the top 15 Fashion Focus finalists of GTB Lagos fashion and

design week 2014 and was amongst the Top 4 finalist of the DSTV

Fashion Protege Contest. She has showcased at Africa fashion week

Nigeria, Lagos Fashion And Design week, and MTN Business Overlook

Forum. She has also enjoyed massive publicity on various media

platforms in Nigeria.

 

Lagos Fashion And Design Week 2014 was her break through for this

young and promising designer. She debuted her collection SS15 early

this year and the year is already looking very promising for

Oluwatobi.

 

2. Akabogu Ogochukwu (Lines by chaab)

 

Akabogu Ogochukwu is the creative director of the rising brand; Lines

by chaab, a fashion design outfit dedicated to presenting its

customers with  different clothing options ranging from hand

embellished clothing to stunning texture play, colour play as well as

pattern play in the unique art of mix and match as never seen before.

Akabogu Ogochukwu translates her love for languages and art into a

universal language…..fashion.

 

She emerged winner of  the Nigerias’ Next Top Designer Competition

which was aired on various Tv stations in Nigeria  and later going on

to win the Music Meets Runway Rising Icon Competition 2014. And this

has been the turning point in the life of this young designer. She has

also showcased at the Africa Fashion Week Nigeria and Winasbet

Nigerian Student Fashion And Design Week, which is the biggest fashion

showcase in Africa for student designers. In 2014, Ogo was rated as

one of the top 12 newcomers in the industry by BlackNBold Fashion

House. Ogo and her works has been featured on E! Online, Africa Magic

, Studio 53, Pulse.ng, Onobello.com, Bella Naija and a host of others.

The year 2015 is looking bright for this young designer as she already

has a host of top clients patronizing her brand and she will be

showcasing her 2015 Collection at the Music Meets Runway later this

year.

 

3. Omowunmi Owonifari (Mo’fari Couture)

 

Omowunmi is the  founder/creative engine behind the “regal” Fashion

label MO’FARI COUTURE. She is a young girl who knows what She wants

and goes for it. She was born in June 1986 in the city of Lagos. She

attended the University of Lagos Staff School Akoka Yaba,  Mayflower

School Ikenne Ogun State and graduated from the Olabisi Onabanjo

University where she studied accounting. She is also a graduate of

Fate Foundation business school.

 

Omowunmi Owonifari began her career studying fashion design from the

prestigious Nobel Afrik training and dress making school in Nigeria in

the year 2011.Upon Graduating, the invaluable experience gained

inspired Omowunmi to fulfil her lifelong dream to launch her “Regal”

fashion brand MOFARI COUTURE in June 2011 while still on Training.

 

Her participation in several competitions has made her brand grow

fast. Her major Achievement so far in the industry was being a part of

the Top 15 Lagos Fashion and Design week And British Council Fashion

Focus 2014 Finalist, which she claims was a major breakthrough for her

brand. Her latest collection S/S15 was showcased at the just concluded

Lagos Fashion and Design week 2014. She was one of the four finalist

at the 2015 Zinkata Red carpet challenge. Her work has been featured

in several fashion blogs and tv programmes. In June 2014 she got an

editorial feature in the Guardian  Newspaper as the Designer of the

Week. She is one designer to look out for in the year 2015.

 

 

4.Folu Ajayi (House of Dabira)

 

Folu is the third of four children, born to the family of Professor

and Dr (Mrs.) Michael Ajayi. She attended Staff School and the

International School Ibadan, University of Ibadan, for her primary and

secondary education, respectively. She recently graduated from the

Faculty of Law, University of Ibadan. She is the Creative Director of

the House of Dabira, a fashion brand created December 2011.

 

Although like most other designers, fashion started for Folu at a very

young age. Her brand “House of Dabira” is an household name at the

University of Ibadan and she remains one of the most successful young

designers to have graduated from her university in recent times.

 

She was a nominee of The Students Union Government Awards, Best

Student-Owned Organisation, September 2013,  and The Oyo 30under30

Awards, Fashion Category, in December 2013. And has won the following

awards; The Junior Chambers International(JCI), Fifteen Outstanding

Persons Awards, Most Outstanding Person In Entrepreneurship, March

2014; Oyo Students Entrepreneurship Awards, Entrepreneur Of The Year,

September 2014;  Realad UI Awards, Fashion Icon Of The Year, December

2014.

 

She has showcased at the Nigerian Television Fashion Show, The Dreams

Come True Show With Jazzyb, Miss Heritage Competition, Ife Runway

Fashion Show. In 2013, an official launch for the brand was held in

April at the University of Ibadan; after which she participated at the

Nigerian Student Fashion And Design Week in June, at the University of

Lagos, Yaba.

 

In 2013, she also established the House of Dabira Campaign Against

Domestic Violence Towards Women and Children. She recently won the

Zinkata Red Carpet Challenge, for which she got to dress Dakore

Egbuson-Akande for the 2015 Africa Magic Viewers Choice Awards, held

at the Eko Hotels and Suites, Lekki, Lagos. The dress was a hit as

Dakore Egbuson-Akande made the best dressed list of sites such as

bellanaija.com, stylevitae.com, memkoh.com among many others.

Bellanaija recently put up an article about the competition and the

brand.

She is definitely a designer to lookout for in 2015.

 

 

5. Bimbo Oye-Akinnifesi (Reni Smiths)

 

Bimbo Oye-Akinnifesi is the creative director of Reni Smiths. She

spent her early years growing up in Lagos. Her grandmother was a

seamstress thus giving her an early taste of the world of design and

fashion. Beginning her formal training at Instituto di Moda Burgo

where she got a diploma in fashion styling. She entered the exciting

world of fashion by establishing the Reni Smith brand which she

launched at the 2013 edition of GTBank Lagos Fashion & Design Week as

one of the top 10 young designers showcasing the Bella Donna

collection.

After the launch, the brand received massive acceptance and she has

had the honor of designing clothes for top female celebrities in

Nigeria, as well as had the Reni Smith pieces worn on the red carpet

for different award shows. Bimbo has been featured in notable fashion

blogs, magazines and television programmes within and outside the

country. The year looks very promising for this young designer and she

is one to definitely lookout for in the year 2015.

 

 

6. Vovwe Omoko (Ovems Fashion)

 

Vovwe Omoko graduated from the Department of Textile art at Delta

State University in 2014 after which she pursued training at OSC

College of Fashion. Her love for fashion started from when she was a

child, and she has always received the support of her parents. Her

brand originated from her passion to make clothes that interpretes

aesthetics and speak class.

 

Her major breakthrough was when she emerged as the most creative

designer at the Winasbet Nigerian Student Fashion and Design Week in

2014 which featured over 40 young designers from various states in

Nigeria. This prize brought her to limelight as she was featured in

various media platforms in Nigeria. Few months later, she went ahead

to win the David Wej Half a Million Naira Fashion Competition. She

also won the BlackNBold Fashion Awards for Young Designer of the Year.

 

She is presently an in house stylist and wardrobe designer for cool tv

and wazobia tv and she has styled various celebrities in Nigeria. I

present the fashion and style show on the wazobia tv. She will be

debuting the “Edgy And Classy” collection at the 2015 edition of

Africa Fashion Week Nigeria. She is a designer to lookout for this

year.

 

 

7.  Adebola Adebowale (Derb’s Signature)

 

Adebola Adebowale is the drive behind the fast growing fashion brand;

Derb’s signature, a Nigeria-UK trained engineer with an inseparable

love for fashion.

 

Derb’s signature is a true Nigerian dream reaching out to the world

with innovation and originality.

 

Adebola has always loved fashion with insistent quest to fill the

fashion gap and make better image and personality brand. She has been

involved in different aspect of skill acquisition and practice. She

showcased her collections at the 2011, 2012 and 2013 edition of the

Bristol fashion week in England. She was also one of the four

finalists of the Zinkata Red Carpet challenge where the winner had a

chance to style Dakore to the 2015 edition of AMVCA. Her works has

been featured in notable magazines in the Uk and Nigeria.

 

She is presently working on a full collection Chic bohemian which will

be released in winter 2015 and she will also be showcasing at some

major fashion week in Nigeria this year. This is another designer to

lookout for in 2015.

 

 

 

 

8. Nkechi Sonia Ntekume (Spine Cut)

 

As a child, it was watching her mom develop a clothing line for which

she created her own prints that sparked Nkechi’s interest in fashion.

Soon, her artistic interests spread to sketching and using fabrics,

she was quite crafty with the needles, she used to stitch out wears

for her doll and crochet stitches which she learnt from her Mum.

 

She enrolled into a vocational and skills acquisition center; Youth

Resource Center-Idia Renaissance in Benin, Edo state, where

she learnt the basics of fashion designing for 6months and emerged as

one of the top students of the department.

 

The 2014 graduand of the University Of Benin has  been into bespoke

and made-to-measure of day to day occasion and bridal wears, offering

a one on one service, and working closely with

clients to create their ultimate dream outfits, ensuring perfect fit

to suit individual tastes.

 

In 2014 she studied Fashion Design professionally  at Needlekraft

Fashion School of Needlekraft Couture for 6months. Months into the

training, she got involved in Exhibitions which formally introduced

her brand to a part of the Lagos market. Later that year in September,

she

did a one month intermediate course in branding, collection making, pattern

drafting plus fashion illustration at One Stop Celebration College of

Fashion with Asanyah Davidson of Circa 24, as a tutor where she emerged

winner of the project work which launched her first collection; Trumpet

collection. Awesomely she’s Currently into

a bridal course at Bride Affairs and an online programme too. 2015 is

a year to watch out for this promising young designer.

 

9.  Modupe Adeoti (17.09 Couture)

 

Spotted a few times on the red carpet, 17.09 Couture stores are go to

places for red carpet events.  17.09 Couture was created by Modupe

Adeoti who is also the Head Designer.

 

The Graduate of English Language from the University of Ado-Ekiti in the

year 2011, has the capacity to universalised the fashion world with

her linguistic ability, she

launched her Fashion Line in the year 2013.

 

17.09 Couture is a top notch brand and has been making its way to the

top. With three collections released so far, the last been a runway

collection

showcased at the Winasbet Nigerian Student Design And Fashion Week in

2014 which was referred to as the brands major debut.

 

Modupe has been featured on a few television programmes, fashion

magazines and blogs. She was listed under the Top 12 fashion industry

newcomers in the year 2014 with her  brand in the Top 10. She was also

one of the finalists that made it to the Game On house for team

fashion, The reality TV show sponsored by Malta Guinness, which has

been a huge break out for

the brand.

 

She will be releasing the “Silver Lining Collection” in few weeks

time. This collection will be showcased at major fashion shows in

Nigeria. This is a promising year for this creative young designer.

 

10. Gbenga Luke-Adetule (NVO).

 

Gbenga Luke- Adetule is the Creative Director of NVO APPAREL. NVO

stands for NAIJA’S VERY OWN; a proudly Nigerian fashion brand that

offers premium bespoke outfits.

The NVO APPAREL brand was birthed in March 2013, fueled by the zeal to

make quality, outstanding outfits that would rival established

designers in the fashion industry both home and abroad. In June 2014,

Gbenga showcased at the second

edition of Winasbet Nigerian Student Fashion and Design Week (NSFDW),

the biggest

student fashion week in Africa, and this was a turning point for him, it

motivated him to dream bigger and work harder, just after this

showcase, he was invited to audition for a fashion project called “The

Making”, a lot of experience was gained as he learned from the likes of

Mai Atafo.

 

In August 2014, he showcased his 2nd  collection at the Nubian Runway

and Fashion Show (N.R.F.S) where he emerged as one of the most

creative designers of the night. He has been featured on notable

fashion blogs, magazines and television programmes and he has styled

quite a number of

celebrities, OAP’s, Music acts and TV personalities for red carpet events,

photo shoots and music video shoots. The young designer recently

signed a partnership deal with Goge Africa, where he gets to dress

their Tv presenters for a period of time.

 

The year 2015 promises to be a stepping stone for this young designer

as he is also looking forward to showcasing his 2015 collection at the

Lagos Fashion And Design Week.

 

11. Adepeju Okunuga (Oza Couture)

 

Babcock University’s famous fashion brand OZA COUTURE was created by

Adepeju Okunuga in the year 2012. The young designer is one of most

established and successful fashion designers on campus. Her passion

for fashion has always been embedded in her since she was little but

it came into limelight in her 300 level. She was raised by her mother

and father who fully support and encourage her.

Oza Couture is all about designing unique, stylish, classy, decent and

well tailored dresses for women. Her environment in school inspired

her to be able design dresses that would still look decent and also

compliant with the school rules. She showcased her first collection

“The Nightingale Collection” in the early parts of 2014 in different

fashion shows organised in her school. Her second collection “The

Versatile Collection” was showcased at the Uninfluenced 2015 Fashion

Show organized in Babcock University. She also participated in the

Fayrouz fashion competition in the year 2014. This showcase got her an

interview by Punch Nigeria on her entrepreneurship skills in 2014. Her

notable awards and accomplishments cannot be overlooked as she won the

Accounting Students League of Babcock’s Departmental Award for

Entrepreneur of the year in 2013, The Babcock University Students

Association’s Award for Entrepreneur of the year in 2014, Most

Enterprising Female Award in her hall of residence Felicia Adebisi

Dada in 2015 and the African Diamonds Award  Babcock University for

Fashion Designer of the year in 2015. She intends to further her

skills in fashion designing by pursuing a masters degree in fashion

designing. Now out of school, the industry should watch out for this

designer.

 

12. Apooyin Abiola, Doyin Junaid, Yusuff Olusola (AWE’S CLOTHING)

 

Breaking into the fashion scene late 2013, Awe clothing’s has been a

students brand with distinction as they have achieved so much within

the little time of establishment with roots in the United States and

across campuses in Nigeria. The brand is owned by three young

designers, Apooyin Abiola a student of the University of Lagos, Yusuf

Olusola a student of the federal poly Ilaro and Doyin Junaid who

resides in the United States. These young proteges have been able to

work together as a team and channel all their creative energy into the

Awe Brand.

 

The two (2) times Most outstanding student brand of the University of

Lagos is known for taking their clients through an adventurous journey

of unparalleled fashion. From their

fabric selections and swatches to the detailed attention they pay to

fitting, quality, finesse and timeliness of delivery. They also offer

the best sartorial pieces on a quality for less basis.

 

In the year 2014, Awe clothing’s was nominated as an Emerging brand of

the year at FUNAAB Awards, Student Enterprise Of the Year at the

Unilag Awards and also at the Tush All Youth Awards.  Awe has styled

Celebrities like BOJ, Tosyn Bucknor, Cynthia Morgan,  Vector, Kiss

Daniels, Toke of Unilag fm amongst others.

 

The year 2015 looks very promising for this young brand.

 

13.  Onwuka Onyeka Paschal (Royal Couture)

Onwuka Onyeka Paschal is an undergraduate student of Babcock

University and creative director of Royal Couture. He is a proficient

designer so skilled in the art of making “Strictly”  Male outfits. The

way he fits colors together with the perfect design is impeccable.

It’s like he understands colour shades and designs so well, he can

craft a mesh of elegant cocktail wears with these little detailing.

 

He officially launched his designer flagship store; ROYAL COUTURE in

the year 2015. He debuted the “Urban Soldiers” at the just concluded

Babcock

University Uninfluenced Fashion show, a western university fashion

clique which also featured prominent and talented fashion designers

from withing and outside the country.

He is one of the prominent designers in his University and has been

featured in some major blogs and magazines in Nigeria.

 

14.  Oluwafolakemi Aigbirior (Fowal Flair)

 

Oluwafolakemi Aigbirior is a fashion designer with the taste for

style, finishing and fit, she loves paying attention to details. Her

love for arts

and crafts is borne out of the desire for designing and making people look good.

 

The graduate of Home Economics at Obafemi Awolowo University and

creative director of Fowal Flair started her brand during her

undergraduate days and was incorporated in the

year 2011. Oluwafolakemi Aigbirior is an expert in creating bespoke

and ready to wear creations.

This ever rising brand is also into designing and production of

timeless designs for women that love good taste. Over the years, they

have been able

to train a good number of young females by helping them bring out

their potential creative ability.

 

She is also a Goldman Sachs’ 10,000 Women scholar of the Enterprise

Development Centre(EDC) at the Pan Atlantic University.

 

Fowal Flair entails what femininity is and embraces all aspects of it,

making it a favourite among folks with the best fashion taste buds.

 

When Folakemi is off fashion, She’s into BlackNbold Fashion club, She was

also a part of the just concluded Ife Runway Season Three Goodwill

Ambassador.

Her designs has been featured in some fashion magazines and blogs in Nigeria.

 

15. Faith Ifarajimi (Bloke Oluwajimi)

Faith is a 400 level student of the Federal University of Agriculture,

Abeokuta where he is studying Animal Nutrition.

Unlike many designers, Faith is focusing on Knitwears which is not so

popular amongst Nigerian designers. He started knitting as a learning

on the job process, because knitwear design is considered as self

taught for him. He had his first hands on experience of knitwear

designing in

2013 when there was an educational strike in the Federal Institutions.

 

With role models like Missoni, Laduma Ngxokolo, Mark Fast, and Buki

Akib who are also influences on the young designers works. His debut

collection ‘DREAMS’ for the Autumn/Winter 2015 season which he

showcased at the House of Claire fashion show has been receiving a lot

of positive reviews from reputable fashion heads in the industry.

He is presently one of the youngest male knitwear designer in Nigeria

presently into knit wears. He will be showcasing his collection at the

Winasbet Nigerian Student Fashion and Design Week and the GTB Lagos

Fashion and Design Week later this year.

 

More:

Sammie’s Couture, Jkcollectibles, Hembadoon clothing.