Young Designers Dismantle Cultural Stereotypes At Nigeria’s Arise Fashion Week

Whether through modernising traditional textiles, or challenging gender binaries, this year’s Arise introduced a new generation of African talent to the world stage.

When Nigerian-born, Austrian-raised designer Kenneth Ize first stumbled across YouTube videos showing the runways of Arise Fashion Week, he was in his first year at university in Vienna. “I wanted to see if there was anything like an African fashion week – or even African fashion, because all I knew was that there were tailors – as many of them here as there are Starbucks in other places,” he recalls over lunch in the sticky Lagos heat. “Then, I came across Arise and immediately I thought: this is what I want to do if I ever have a brand.” In the few short years since, he’s come full-circle: at the sixth incarnation of the continental fashion showcase held in Lagos, the LVMH Prize nominated designer was awarded the Designer of The Year Award for his exceptional incorporation of traditional textiles into his boldly contemporary aesthetic.