AJANÉÉ STIRS LAGOS FASHION WEEK WITH “UNDRESSING ACT”

AJANÉÉ entered the runway of Lagos Fashion Week with its boldest statement yet, the collection Undressing Act served as both spectacle and critique. Director Luqman Ajani, who earned his stripes as a Green Access finalist in 2023, leveraged his signature sustainable ethos with upcycled fabrics, dead-stock materials and second-hand clothing  to craft one of the most provocative stories of the season. The audience turned heads, reactions ranged from scandalised to enthralled, and the label made clear: AJANÉÉ is now a game-shifter in Nigerian fashion.

The collection employed asymmetrical cuts and daring silhouettes: male models appeared in pants left unzipped, female models in tops engineered not to hold the chest, two incidental “nipslips” emerged, yet they aligned with the collection’s loose choreography of exposure, rebellion and immediacy. The runway soundtrack reinforced the theme: “IT GIRL” by Kah-Lo repeated its refrain “She’s the it girl, she can’t control it. She means everything, and it’s the way her dress falls.” The synergy between sound, setting and form created a moment of fashion meeting performance, and it was, as many in attendance noted, “cunt-y in a way Nigerian fashion has never seen before.”

Visual material underscored the message. AJANÉÉ reworked denim pieces into sculptural builds; one standout look was a dress entirely constructed from scarves, layered, flowing, subverting expectation. That scarf dress became the centerpiece, its textures and movement commanding the floor. Model and stylist Ashley Okoli wore it fresh off the runway, signalling AJANÉÉ’s capacity to craft looks that leap beyond the catwalk. With materials sourced from flea markets and second-hand channels, Ajani insists on transforming discarded fabrics into high‐impact aesthetics; his process is at once ecological and audacious.

Undressing Act was about peeling back norms, exposing fashion’s shackles, and repositioning garments as armor for those who rise and redefine themselves. AJANÉÉ targets uncompromising, eco-conscious change-makers, those on the cusp of timeless trends, talismanic even, and here the collection delivers. Ajani’s work affirms that sustainability need not be safe; it can provoke, disrupt and disturb. In a fashion climate often content with incremental change, AJANÉÉ dares to up-end.