June 4, 2021

In this article, we’ve hand picked 4 brands 4 emerging brands on the African continent. One of the attributes of the African fashion industry is dynamism. African fashion opens its arms to new and exciting cuts, designs, and finishes with a creative sense of approach and an eccentric story to back it up. Transcending all seasons and styles, our passion for fashion as Africans is gradually reaching its peak, and some brands tagged as upcoming are killing this passion with abstract creativity and vogue trends. Here are some of the toppers on Ekpo’s list that will pull double duty, this fashion season and beyond. PEPPER ROW A neo luxury engineered fashion brand curated by Omafume Nemogha to sustain fashion from Africa with eccentric local Nigerian fabrics, trends, mechanized creativity and styles adopted from the Victorian era. Pepper row by Nemogha is a brand for youths who know what to wear and how to wear it It is the parent brand to couture bridal label “Pepper Row Bridal”. Summer Spring 2019 introduced the schmick fashion brand with their first public appearance at Lagos Fashion and Design week and spice honors with their first collection titled RHEGIE, which tells the story of a young kokori girl who creates outfits through the cultural inspiration of the Ibadan people and their African heritage. TJWHO? Founded in 2018 by Nottingham Trent graduate Taju Ibrahim, The Lagos, Nigeria, ready-to-wear and made-to-measure brand was conceived to produce minimalist menswear that blurs the lines between the past, present and future. The aesthetics surrounding the brand is the founder’s Nigerian cultural background and upbringing, as well as his obsession with clean lines, his years of study and his travel experiences. The pioneering menswear brand launched its first collection, “A confluence of Everything,” around May 2019 The collection spoke loudly on the interpretation and blends of native and urban basics while exploring a refreshing side of African, European and Japanese references. KATUSH BY KATUNGUL Timeless, transcendent, casual and versatile is what this Kenyan brand stands for Created by Katungulu Mwendwa – a fashion focus 2019 finalist of the Lagos fashion and design week annual program, the design aesthetic is practical, innovative , contemporary and conscious. ADRGYN|OMO, WORK IN PROGRESS & PEOPLE OF THE TABOO are the only collections produced by this brand and they all relate to individual growth in contrast  to amalgamation. LARRY JAY Founded by Mohammed Jafaru Larry, a 2019 finalist of the Lagos fashion and design week annual program ” Fashion Focus,” Larry Jay is a unisex ready to wear Ghanaian brand of ethical and tribalistic clothes and accessories that speaks volume on unisex wears inspired by nature and various African cultures and Arts. The brand started as a fashion accessory line in 2012, with a rebirth and introduction of fashion clothes in 2016. In 2017, Larry Jay released his debut collection, “Timeless Legacy,” which debuted on the screen of the Accra men’s fashion week that year.

   Would you wear this? Would you wear that? How do you feel when you wear such? These and more are the common reactions to androgynous clothing worldwide most especially in Nigeria, Africa. The boldness of androgynous style can make a person stop, stare, talk, ridicule and laugh at the person possessing such style. However we can’t deny the fact that androgynous style is chic, dramatic and yassss way. 2019 challenges the androgyny style in terms of languages and sees it as an outgrowth of men and women’s wear, further describing it as “cross dressing”, sometimes people think when a woman dresses like a man it gives her power, courage, stamina and projects her as an epitome of feminism in the society but when a man wears a crop top, split pants and other female related wears , he is described  as disgusting, repealing, stupid and drastically a “homosexual”. In a fashion industry that has  steadily been reorganising itself in recent seasons, with some designers merging their men and women’s shows  and others silently ignoring the gender labels of clothes when it comes to celebrity dressing, this  season felt like a restoration of sorts -which means the industry is now taking a gradual leap in eradicating gender specific dressing by merchandising men and women’s wear together so people don’t know what they are actually looking at in a creative synchronisation with main stream acceptance and normalisation of gender identities that once seemed foreign, weird, absurd, gay, unusual, disgusting and gender abusing to some. So when we talk fashion, we like to tell ourselves that everything has been done before. This moment in time, however is decidedly ground-breaking, evenly dramatic, schmick and free from gender abuses. Therefore if it means that men can now wear splits without societal oppression, by all means – can the evolution begin?

”A Freak A” “We’re all complicated, aren’t we, even when we’re being basic? We would like to fancy ourselves as being the onions that we strive to be, with layer upon layer, usually never peeled, usually never discovered for all of the different ones.  Photographed By Kadara Enyeasi & Styled By Papa Oyeyemi, Continue To View Maxivive PreWet 2019 Campaign.

A Photo Series About Falling In And Out Of Love! ” A Las-Gidi Vibe” is a picture series that follows a day in the life of 2 affluent lovers in Lagos. this lifestyle project tries to paint the otherwise rowdy city of Lagos, Nigeria in a more calm and romantic light. it starts off in their lush banana island home in the highbrow area of Lagos and sees them prepare and leave for a luxe location (Maison Farenheit) while still obviously head over heels for each other. this series has a dominant theme of Love, Positive energy and Luxury”. Credit and AppreciationMale character: Chisom NjokuFemale character: Evelyn AshiruStylist: Joseph UsiagwuPhotography: Ayo Philips & Yanju FakayejoBeauty/Makeup: Nerissa EtigwayeArt Director: Bola AgbajeLocation: Banana Island Lagos, Lekki Phase 1 and Maison Farenheit.Story & Production by : Chisom Njoku