Deola Sagoe designs A new generation of Nigerian fashion designers are targeting the country's rich and famous while hatching plans to turn Lagos into Africa's fashion capital, writes Waldimar Pelser. ON a mannequin behind walls of glass and giant concrete elephant tusks, olive-green snakeskin piping jazzes up an evening gown and blue metallic threads meet black cotton cloth handwoven in a Yoruba method that is said to be a thousand years old. Nigerian haute couture got a new temple recently and the priestess is Deola Sagoe, an award-winning Lagos-based designer. With the opening of her flagship store on one of Victoria Island’s premier business streets, Sagoe joined a handful of high-end Nigerian designers catering to an elite used to the very best of London, Paris and Milan boutiques. Now the ladies of Lagos can indulge in $1 000 (about N118000) pieces or a $25 000 wedding dress right in their backyard – and according to Sagoe she can’t keep up. In an industry that has long b...
