Mgbeke – an Igbo metaphor describing local in the darnest way possible.
Appealing to a new generation of fashion costumers in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Ibadan, Abuja and Jos areas, local fashion is gradually becoming the future of fashion. Local fashion in this heterogeneous setting is the one way mix of anything fashion.
In an era before urban fashion, dresses were worn to express feelings by local settlers in various areas, for example: Oshodi, Ijebu and Illaje in Lagos state, Owerri in Imo state, Ibadan in Oyo state, etc. local settlers wore to express feelings unlike settlers in urban areas such as Lekki, Ikoyi and Victoria Island in Lagos state, thereby making marginalised and rural communities play a role in the history of fashion and arts.
Inside the minimalist world of “mgbeke” fashion; transactional sex workers and churches such as Deeper life, Mountain of fire and Jehovah witness between vibrant scenes of vogueing, individual narratives of struggle and passion made socially shunned communities participate unknowingly in fashion-obviously making local fashion the ultimate chronicler of fashion on the streets.
