As the African fashion industry continues to expand its influence across global markets, Lagos Fashion Week marks a significant milestone: 15 years at the forefront of showcasing, developing, and strengthening the continent’s fashion ecosystem.

Lagos Fashion Week is a leading platform dedicated to redefining African fashion through innovation, collaboration and bold redefinition of industry practices. Since its launch, it has inspired change, expanded opportunities for designers and amplified African voices in the global fashion conversation.

This anniversary season invites the community to pause, reflect, and relaunch. Under the theme “In Full Bloom,” Lagos Fashion Week 2025 is both a celebration of consistency and a recommitment to the deeper work ahead. It honours a legacy rooted in community, creativity, and cultural impact, driven by a relentless commitment to building a future where African designers not only create but thrive.

Since its inception, Lagos Fashion Week has become an instrumental platform for defining African fashion. Over the past decade and a half, it has spotlighted thousands of designers, cultivated international partnerships, and catalyzed essential conversations around sustainability, the circular economy, and innovation in African fashion. This year’s edition continues that legacy with a full calendar of runway shows, exhibitions, industry-led discussions, and immersive experiences.

The season will also highlight long-standing initiatives such as Green Access and Woven Threads, which have championed sustainability, craftsmanship, and responsible production; and XRetail, which bridges the gap between designers and consumers through new experiential commerce models.

Green Access 2025: Call for Applications Now Open

Green Access is Lagos Fashion Week’s flagship accelerator dedicated to emerging designers focused on sustainability and innovation through African craftsmanship. The 2025 cycle challenges designers to rethink pre and post-consumer textile waste as both raw material and creative opportunities. This includes exploring indigenous craft techniques, fostering youth development, and creating circular systems that are open, adaptive, and regenerative.

For 2025, Lagos Fashion Week will partner with NAHOUS for a one-week residency during the programme. The initiative will also feature an exclusive editorial collaboration with Guzangs Magazine, offering deeper storytelling around the designers and their work.

The program runs as a hybrid format with three weeks of virtual sessions followed by practical workshops where designers develop capsule collections. Each participant will present three looks showcasing sustainable materials, craftsmanship, and innovation at Lagos Fashion Week.

Applications are open to emerging designers in or connected to Africa until September 11, 2025. Apply here.

A Defining Moment for African Fashion

This 15th anniversary arrives at a time when African fashion is shaping global conversations around culture, creativity, and sustainability. Designers from the continent are leading direct to consumer activations in key cities across Europe, Africa, and North America.

African designers are increasingly shaping global narratives, from Bubu Ogisi’s Zalando Visionary Award to Yayra Agbofah’s H&M Foundation Global Change Award. Both were nurtured through Lagos Fashion Week’s incubator, Style House Files.

From breakout brands like Iamisigo, Orange Culture and Emmy Kasbit to collaborations with the V&A Museum, British Fashion Council, UNESCO and Industrie Africa, Lagos Fashion Week has evolved beyond a showcase into a strategic platform driving sustainable industry growth.

Join us this October in Lagos as we mark 15 years of consistent creativity, community, and cultural leadership. In Full Bloom is not just a theme, it is a moment to honour how far we’ve come, and plant new seeds for the future of African fashion.

Lagos Fashion Week 2025 is title sponsored by Heineken, with Lush Hair, Afreximbank and the Bank of Industry (BOI) as official partners.