2024: The Year Nigerian Oldies Took Fashion to the Runway
African fashion is high fashion. At its very best, it is colourful, clear and laden with charisma. It spells uniqueness and confidence — littered with bravado and a lot of pride. It could be clothes woven to be robes or wrappers laying over one another but it is nothing like you'll see elsewhere.
Within African fashion, there's the Nigerian fashion. It is like everything the country is and its people are — loud. The Nigerian version of fashion breathes class and character. Despite the many foreign adaptations made of local culture, the Nigerians art of fashion is attractive. Some of the finest fashion designers out of Africa are Nigerians. They sell the beauty of their culture, and the stories of generations in needles and threads.
An average Nigerian wedding party is a festival of arts and culture. You see hundreds of the works of fashion designers — all of different classes and levels but inspired to deliver just one thing. Beauty.
The year 2024 has been one Nigerians have taken their fashion game notches higher and like the bubbly, bold and brilliant youngsters, the elderly ones are reaching deeply into their younger spirits. Elegance has been commonplace and in donning locally-themed attires on global stages, the oldies have brought excellence to the frontlines.
It’s your mothers and fathers, uncles and especially, aunties and their Iro, Buba and Gele and their hundreds of other styles. Nigerian Gele has a strong vocal chord - they shout, and are dramatic in many ways. Every event is an opportunity for a Nigerian oldie to show that their beauty has no age limit. They feel young in their clothes and their sense of style is pristine and inviting at the same time.
Farooq Oreagba, the Chief Executive Officer of NG Clearing Limited took Ojude-Oba by storm when he stole the show in Ijebu Ode. Sitting gallantly on a horse with a cigar in his mouth, he became social and mainstream media sensation, especially among young Nigerians. At 58, he showed an eclectic side to fashion with the main selling point being his swagger, or in more modern terms, steeze.
Everything Oreagba donned was strewn in class. His dark shades, his cigar, the horse and his confidence helped him to become the cynosure of all eyes, yet he is just one of the many people who showed the brilliant and high-fashion side of Nigerian clothing at the event.
Tobe Nwigwe is one of the most talented and fashionable musicians in the world. He employs a silky delivery of beautiful rhymes and rhythms in his music. His style has purposeful lyricism enshrined as the core of his art and deep down his heart, he has colours for days. A Tobe music video is a carnival.
He has a Nigerian’s confidence and bravado for what he carries. Tobe wears wonders and has styled himself to some of the brightest fashion events in the world including the Milan Fashion week and Coachella. Despite his bodily brilliance and fashion finesse, his mum stole the show when music legend, Pharrell invited them to his Louis Vuitton show in Paris.
Mama Nwigwe made everyone stand still for a moment, as she sat with grace and walked with candour. She wore dark shades, and braces and had her headwrap - Gele flying round the world in its sheen as she got caught in memorable images.
Everyone at the event gawked at her insouciance as she made the moment and place bow before her style, typical of most Nigerian mothers. If the intent was to have all eyes on her, it definitely worked. Tobe’s excellent fashion sense must be hereditary if what his mum showed was anything to go by.
The latest or not-so-latest entrant into this league of extraordinarily classy and fashionable Nigerians from older generations is the Osi Apagun of Egbaland, Lai Labode.
A finance expert of many years, Lai Labode is a trendsetter and man of immense wisdom. Stylish and suave, his choice of clothing for events tells a deep understanding of the royalty he is. Lai Labode stole the show at the London Fashion Week as he walked the runway alongside music superstar Davido for celebrity fashion designer, Ugo Monye.
Lai Labode has for long used his rich connection to local culture as a big step to global reckoning. Like other Nigerians who have stolen the show in Paris, he chose London — arguably the most culturally diverse city in the world as his restaurant. He ate that stage. Every step he took was an insignia of excellence, delivered in front of the ambassadors of the future who watched keenly with admiration.
The rich interconnections between the sense of style of the oldies and the bold brilliance of new generations make for a piquancy that makes local culture fashionable. This year 2024 has seen the elderly restate their affection for style, and from there, the only way is up.