Lagos Fashion Week kicks off with compelling panel and dinner 'The Gathering'

The excitement was palpable as guests gathered at The Wings Complex for the first official event of the LFW season. 'The Gathering', a part of the Fashion Business Series, was a Pan-African style experience powered by Lagos Fashion Week.

Members of the fashion community came for the dinner and panel. It was a veritable ménage of designers from across the continent, fashion lovers, industry insiders and supporters of the LFW brand who gathered to go beyond the veil and understand the intricacies of the business of fashion.

The night kicked off with speeches from sponsors including Heineken and Oando. A representative of Oando spoke passionately about their support of the creative arts. She said, ‘At Oando, we are committed to supporting African grown creative arts. Innovation and creativity is at the very core of what we do so it's a great pleasure to be supporting Lagos Fashion Week.’

Then, Lagos Fashion Week founder and a true pioneer in the fashion industry, She expressed her joy about being able to bring everybody together to speak

Guests were then treated to a sit-down banquet-style dinner. Sitting across from each other, laughing and talking where the pillars of our creative community. Men and women who, through living their truth and exploring their passion every day, have built up our creative economy to where is today and continue to uplift it by simply creating.

One of these creatives was designer who relocated back to Ivory Coast just over a year ago hails his upcoming collection as a celebration of his homecoming. Speaking exclusively to Pulse at the dinner about the collection, he said it 'represents a re-birth’, an examination of Africa in its current state. His collection is beyond fashion, it’s a commentary on a continent that he holds so very dear.

Panelists

Tamu McPherson

As the blogger behind All the Pretty Birds and a street-style photographer, if anyone knows about fashion it's Tamu McPherson. During grad school, Tamu discovered her love of fashion. In 2005, after working briefly as a lawyer, she moved with her husband to Milan where she chased her dream and officially started her career in fashion.

She begun taking street style photographs in 2006 for Glamour.it and writing feature pieces for Vogue Pelle. She then became a contributor at Elle Italia and launched her own style blog, All the Pretty Birds in November 2008.

Tamu was the Editor-in-Chief of Grazia.it for 2 years and has contributed to amazing publications such as Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar and Refinery 29.

Trevor Stuurman

Trevor Stuurman is a beacon of light in South Africa’s creative community. Since he was named ELLE’s Style Reporter in 2012, Trevor's career has gone from strength to strength. 24-year-old Trevor Stuurman has created a name for himself in the fashion industry both in front and behind the lens with his work during Arise Fashion Week being featured in Vogue.

Stuurman’s undeniable talents have taken him as far as Pitti Imagine in Italy, where he was one of six panelists representing Africa at one of the world’s most prestigious men’s fashion forums. He recently scored the cover of South Africa's GQ Style, a confirmation, not that any was needed, of Trevor's solidified status within South Africa's fashion world.

Daniel Hatton

Daniel Hatton first thought of the idea of an international council for the fashion industry while studying MA Applied Imagination in the Creative Industries.

He graduated in 2012 and soon after, he established the Commonwealth Fashion Council (CFC), a Commonwealth-accredited organisation which supports sustainable development, education, youth and gender empowerment in fashion industries across 52 countries.

The Panel

The panel session was centered around the importance of indigenous platforms in the fashion eco-system and building institutions that we can take ownership of. Moderated by Omoyemi, Tamu, Daniel and Trevor spoke candidly about their personal experiences in their respective corners of the industry and how they believed we could drive the industry forward.

Having grown up in America, Tamu McPherson spoke about the erasure of blackness in foreign media and why it was even more important for us to tell our own stories.

She said, 'I was born in Jamaica but I grew up in the United States and you can see what is happening in the United States right now. As a black person who grew up in the United States, I feel like we have never been able to tell our story because it has either been erased from history books or rarely seen in the media.'

Tamu suggested collaboration as a means of realising the African narrative. With our history being inherently about division, the only way to achieve this goal would be to understand that together we are stronger and pool resources and talent to create a united industry that could compete at a global level.

Overall, it was an enjoyable and insightful night that set the tone perfectly for the next 3 days. As Lagos Fashion Week progresses, we will see shining examples of the type of collaboration that will propel the African fashion industry to the next level.