Nigerian designers breaking the mould of luxury fashion
06 March 2026
By KHENSANI MOHLATLOLE
What exactly sets West African fashion designers apart from not just the continent but the global luxury fashion ecosystem? While the international industry faces an existential crisis — as the category, once renowned for a dedication to craftsmanship, heritage and storytelling, is now frequently lambasted for artificial price inflation, supply chain controversies and soulless references to celebrity and nostalgia — a new generation of African designers is pioneering a new approach. While the entire continent is not lacking in talent, this region has produced a large majority of brands and houses that are going on decades of existence — no easy feat in the African landscape — such as Christie Brown, Lisa Folawiyo and Kenneth Ize. But there is also a new generation pioneering a distinct perspective and approach to fashion that is cementing Africa in the zeitgeist.
In a 2025 video, David Kadavy proposes that artists can fall into two types: Leonardo da Vincis or Raphaels. The latter had an incredibly successful career while alive due to his ability to skillfully and promptly execute concepts, while da Vinci was only celebrated long after his prime due to years spent chasing experiments and unseen goals. To summarise, what set da Vinci apart was that his artworks were often a byproduct of deeper explorations — he didn’t just want to satisfy patrons or create beauty, he wanted to deeply understand how the world works, and painting was the medium through which he could convey complex ideas. Neither archetype is superior to the other; it’s simply a framework Kadavy uses to explain how people produce art. This is also a useful lens for understanding three of West Africa’s most compelling brands to watch this year.
Tolu Coker, Bubu Ogisi and husband-wife duo Oroma Cookey-Gam and Osione Itegboje are da Vincis — although it must be said that they have also mastered real-time execution in a way that means we will not be waiting decades to revel in their work. For each of their brands, clothing is a byproduct of research, experimentation and reflection.
THIS IS US
Cookey-Gam and Itegboje began THIS IS US in 2016 to test what it would mean and look like to produce high-quality Nigerian fashion in Nigeria. The pair spent months and years doing field work in Funtua cotton mills, the Institute of Agricultural Research, and the Kano dye pits to learn everything about local cotton seeds, weaving processes and indigo dyeing techniques. It’s countless hours of unseen work that bring together historical practice with contemporary sensibilities. The clothing is deceptively minimal, but this is rather a soft-spokenness than silence, where the designers embed layers of meaning into the clothing so that it speaks for itself and can be understood and felt by anyone from anywhere.
TOLU COKER
Similarly, Tolu Coker’s work is a self-described diary project in which she reconciles her personal experience as both British and Nigerian within the universal codes of migration. Speaking to W Magazine about her Spring/Summer 2026 collection Unfinished Business, Coker says, “We often talk about the Western gaze, but no one talks about Africa’s gaze on the West.” Survivor’s Remorse, shown recently at London Fashion Week in February, continues these questions, looking at how Coker’s family and community held onto and adapted their material culture in a foreign land with new external stimuli. In many ways, Coker’s collections explore the end of fixed histories and the sartorial methodologies required to embrace or resist a postmodern, globalised world where identity no longer fits neatly into boxes labelled British or Nigerian. In her imagining, Britain is just as much geles and filas as it is houndstooth and tartan.
IAMISIGO
Multiculturalism also defines the work of Bubu Ogisi of IAMISIGO, now one of two African LVMH Prize finalists. Splitting her time between Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa and Kenya, Ogisi creates work that feels representative of the continent without reducing it to a single country. According to the designer, “The ideology is to highlight and promote cultural crossover without compromising identity.” All IAMISIGO collections are handcrafted, utilising techniques such as crochet and beadweaving that cannot be replicated by machines or industrialised processes. In this way, Ogisi champions historical craftsmanship and artisanal techniques while each garment becomes an embodied document co-authored by both makers and wearers. Textiles have long served as vessels of information across the continent, functioning as counter-archives in the face of invisibilising institutions and structural systems. Her insistence on handmade practices resists industrial speed and standardisation, speaking to a contemporary desire to slow down and reconnect with people, craft and meaning.
None of the designers mentioned are alone, nor are they the first to practise fashion in this way. What they represent, however, are powerful examples of how African fashion can operate outside the pressures of global industry cycles and trends while still delivering cultural significance and lasting impact.
