Top 5 best fashion designers in Nigeria that are extremely popular and talented

Author: Olivia Kabir

UPDATED: A YEAR AGO

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Designers are those authorities in the fashion industry that dictate fashion standards and define trends. Each designer is famous and recognizable with his things, and each has his/her unique handwriting. Some of these people become real legends in the world of fashion and style. How did they do this? Are they just dummies of fate or is it behind the desire to make their dreams come true and gigantic work? What glorified them? Who is the best fashion designer in Nigeria? Keep reading and learn the names of the top 5 Nigerian fashion couturiers.

The fashion industry in Nigeria

For many centuries fashion has been one of the main aspects of the culture of civilized humanity. It contained human nature, strength, and spirit.

The Nigerian spirit is difficult to steal because all of this affects fashion trends that are famous throughout the world. Each season, Nigerian motifs and trends conquer the fashion market and take it to a new level.

The fashionable culture of Nigeria is unique. You cannot find copies anywhere else in the world. It is so distinctive that the kings of the world fashion industry are striving to be like our designers and try to borrow something from them. In the collections of Nigerian designers, we can see an incredible love of life, the flight of thought and spirit; we can see purity and sincerity, not stained by the Western stamp. Nigerian fashion culture has its own voice so loudly declared itself to the whole world.

Many designers of our country have received numerous awards for their contribution to world fashion heritage. Their collections tend to buy everyone from the average citizen to the super-popular celebrity.

We present to your attention the top-5 best, talented and unique Nigerian designers. You will learn who became the best of the best by the end of reading our article. Do not miss! We promise to surprise you!

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Best fashion designer in Nigeria: top-5

Below is a list of the five best and most famous and influential fashion designers in Nigeria that have shaped modern fashion in the country and the African continent as a whole.

Folake Folarin–Coker

Folake Folarin–Coker is a renowned Nigerian designer who is on the Forbes list of "20 Young Power African Women". She created the world fashion label Tiffany Amber and forever added her name to the list of the most successful people in the world fashion industry. Her career path began in 1998 in Lagos. She was born in this city, but received her education in Europe, traveling from England to Scotland, and then to Switzerland. Wandering around the world, the girl got the opportunity to learn about different cultures at a young age. She absorbed new knowledge like a sponge, studying more than one science.

So, she received a master's degree in Petroleum Law from Switzerland, but this was not her prerogative of life, only fashion was her biggest passion. Thus, the love of clothes led her to design. Since Folake studied different cultures, she was able to express this in her fashion collections that adore a lot of woman of different ages and preferences all over the world.

Exquisite taste and chic fashion trends gave the woman worldwide recognition, making her one of the most famous designers in Nigeria and the first African designer who presented her works for two years in a row on New York Mercedes Fashion Week. Her name is also known to close media circles such as CNN. She also won an Enterprise Award at the WIE (Women, Inspiration, and Enterprise) Symposium in 2013. Folake Folarin–Coker has played an important role in the development of the Nigerian fashion culture.

Duro Olowu

He was born in Nigeria, but he glorifies our country far beyond its borders, in London. Duro Olowu is a legend in the Nigerian and world fashion industry. A talented designer is known for his colorful African motifs, which are imbued with the national spirit, freedom, and culture of the Nigerian nation.

Duro became passionate about fashion when he was six years old. This love has only grown bigger and stronger. Olowu was developing not only in the fashion field but also in the area of jurisprudence, obtaining a law degree. His talent brought him the recognition of such stars and famous world personalities as Michelle Obama, Uma Thurman, Linda Evangelista, Solange Knowles, and many others.

The Nigerian designer has received many awards for his contribution to the world fashion culture. For example, he won the title of New Designer of the Year at London Fashion Week in 2005, without even presenting his fashion collection. Duro was named the Best International Designer in 2009 and became one of six nominees for the main prize of the Swiss Textile Federation in the amount of 100,000 euros. His fashion collection “Duro” in 2005 was named the collection of the year according to the British and American Vogue.

Deola Sagoe

Deola Sagoe is the founder of The House of Deola Sagoe, as well as the famous Nigerian designer and entrepreneur. Her unique and colorful style, based on an African theme, brought her recognition among renowned world stars such as Oprah Winfrey and Will Smith. Each Nigerian seeks to get into their wardrobe one of the things of her fashion collection.

Her career in the fashion industry began in 1989. However, Deola earned a master’s degree in finance and management from the Universities of Lagos and Miami. Being a highly developed personality, a woman demonstrates this in her fashion collections, actively using Nigerian prints and African aesthetics in general.

Her fashionable masterpieces will enchant every fashionista. Her fashion collections have certain signatures: Attitude and Elegance. Deola has created her personal label called Odua, which the woman dedicated to her mother because she always supported and inspired her on the way to fashionable perfection and worldwide recognition.

In her latest collections, Deola used Adire, handmade fabrics made by Yoruba women. According to Sagoe, Nigerian fashion has come a long way, but it has great prospects for growth and development. Her three daughters Teni, Tiwa, and Aba Sagoe, followed in the footsteps of their mother and inherited the famous label CLAN.

Deola Sagoe has participated in many of the world's fashion shows. Her most famous shows were held in Cape Town and at New York Fashion Week. The woman also received many awards and prizes, such as MNET/Anglo Gold African Designs in 2000 and many others. The World United Nations appointed her ambassador as part of the “Catwalk the World: Fashion for Food” program. This program envisaged raising funds for starving children and reducing their numbers by 2015.

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Zizi Cardow

Zizi Cardow has become an important person in the global fashion industry, popularizing Nigerian fabrics, in particular, Ankara. Her fabrics are so unique and innovative that are used now to create gorgeous dresses for the red carpet. She created her successful label Zizi, which brought the woman unbelievable fame and popularity. Now the whole world knows about the uniqueness and beauty of Ankara.

In the young age, Zizi wanted to work in the field of law, but her first job in a fashionable Italian store had awakened her love of style and fashion. At the age of 17, she realized that she wanted from life and who she was destined to become.

Cardow is considered the ambassador of African fashion; she is desired at any fashion show. Zizi appeared on fashion shows in Milan, the USA, Paris, Cape Town, and many other cities in the world.

Zizi Cardow has become a kind of fashionable revolutionary, having opened the Ankara fabric for the whole world. She received many awards for her contribution, which continues to receive to this day. A lot of people love and respect her.

Having worked for only a year in the fashion industry, Zizi won the Prestigious Designer of the Year Award for Nigerian Fashion Week in 2001. Having received this award, Cardow made her name famous in the whole world. Thus the name of the designer was forever included in the list of fashion legends.

Her list of awards also includes:

• DAME Award - Achievement of the Year, in 2002
• St. Moritz Style Selection Award, in 2002
• Nigerian Women Award, in 2002
• African Role Model Leadership Award, in 2007
• Zenith Award for Excellence, in 2009
• UN Peace Ambassador, in 2010
• Global Leadership Award, in 2010
• Young Achievers Award, in 2010
• Fashion and Style Award, in 2010
• Merit Award for African Heritage, in 2010

Her customer base consists of celebrities and well-known politicians who are willing to pay any money, just to have in their collection a thing from Zizi Cardow. CNN, SABC, Channel O, and FTV, in turn, made the designer their muse and main celebrity.

Who is the best fashion designer in Nigeria?

Ade Bakare is the most successful Nigerian designer who has achieved unprecedented recognition and fame. He was created to show the world his incredible fashion collections. Bakare`s hard work in the fashion industry for two decades forever made his name first on the list of fashion legends of all time. His work is an example of feminine beauty and sophistication. Fashion for him is a word with a capital letter because it personifies all living and beautiful. Fashion is the second female I.

Bacare was born and educated in the UK. He initially knew who he would become in this life, so he did not pay attention to other specialties and fields of activity, and the man devoted himself entirely to fashion. He worked in the most prestigious fashion houses of Christian Stambolian and Victor Edelstein. 1991 was decisive in the career of the young designer because it was this year that he founded Ade Bakare Couture and began actively working in the fashion market, selling his collections in the famous boutiques in England, Scotland, and the Channel Islands.

The range of his work is wide: he manufactures stylish evening dresses, chic and exclusive wedding dresses, elegant cocktail dresses, unique hats, and sophisticated perfumes. His collections are full of Ankara and ethnic African motifs. Every woman will find herself in the works of Ade Bakare. Nigeria and Great Britain built Ada on the throne of fashion and style.

Bakare operates worldwide: his fashion shows are held in Lagos, Vienna, Cape Town, Morocco, New York, Paris, Mozambique, and many other cities. This list is updated every year. His client base consists of celebrities, senators, ministers, first ladies, and wives of famous personalities.

Ade has participated in many inspirational programs dedicated to the preparation of future specialists in the field of fashion and style. The Ministry of Youth and Culture honored Bakare for his contributions to Nigerian culture. He also received the Paris Academy Award and Conde Nast Publication.

The world of fashion, style, and beauty is interesting, exciting and impressive, it attracts thousands of men and women, many would like to be in it and gain a foothold for many years, but only a few of them succeed.

Nigerian fashion couturiers, who managed to become real authorities for many women, have come a long way of self-realization, sometimes misunderstanding and criticism, but, as a result, have been at the very top of the fashion elite. Their creations are world masterpieces that have already entered or will still go down in history, will be remembered for many years and will delight, again and again, creating special and unique collections.