LFW founder poses on the cover of Guardian Life

Omoyemi Akerele is the woman behind Lagos Fashion Week (previously known as Lagos Fashion and Design Week) and credited with being an important part of the growth of the Nigerian fashion industry. The LFW founder poses on the cover of Guardian Life and grants a rare interview.

Omoyemi Akerele is the founder and artistic director of Style House Files, a creative development agency for Nigerian and African designers. She is credited as the driving force behind Nigeria's growing fashion industry and an important figure when it comes to providing a platform for young creatives.

Style House Files is a pioneering agency in image consultancy and creative direction within Nigeria and works with Nigerian brands on how best to navigate through creative, retail and business spaces.

Omoyemi sat down to discuss her career and life thus far with Guardian Life magazine. The fashion mogul posed in a series of stylish outfits no doubt by Nigerian designers which she champions.

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Read excerpts from the interview below:

The beginning of it all

The fashion pioneer started as a stylist assistant with popular fashion magazine True Love, eventually becoming the senior style editor. She then ran an exclusive styling and imaging consulting agency with PR powerhouse and content producer, Bola Balogun, before realising that there was much more to be done in the industry, which she felt wasn’t growing.

“I realised that there was a huge gap that needed to be filled and, for the industry to grow, it was important to think of a platform that would act as a catalyst on the scene to spearhead change and work towards positioning fashion properly in Nigeria, and of course in Africa, as a business.'' ͟She was inspired by the abundance ͞of the talent we have͟ and ͞the sheer size of Nigeria’s population and an understanding of the potential that having clearly defined structure, infrastructure and a vision to position ‘fashion’ retail as a key contributor to Nigeria’s economy can have on the Nigerian economy.

Growing Nigerian brands

Through the pioneering agency in image consultancy and creative direction within West African countries, SHF, Akerele works with Nigerian brands on brand positioning and retail strategies. The mother also helps brands gain essential international exposure through presenting showcases at Pitti Immagine in Italy and through the Lagos Fashion Week (LFW), which was founded in 2011. [SHF] has developed and executed strategic initiatives to support and strengthen the industry. Lagos Fashion Week is one of them.

''At SHF, we believe that, by creating an agenda of the most pressing issues faced by the fashion industry and then inviting thought leaders to share their perspectives, we can gradually begin to develop a semblance of structure for creating sustainable change in the industry. Our goal is to effectively capture, engage and connect with a diverse demographic of industry players, contributors, stakeholders, fashion cognoscenti, policymakers and potential investors. We achieve this through [the] Fashion Business Series.''