By Christy Anyanwu
AFRICAN fashion ambassador, Lexy Mojo-Eyes, is the
President/CEO of Legendary Gold, the company behind
the showcasing of Nigerian designers globally before year
2000.
Speaking with Sunday Sun, he shared his experience as
a game changer in the fashion scene as a Nigerian.
You are known as the doyen of fashion shows in Ni-
geria; why the silence on what you started in the Nige-
ria fashion scene?
Yes, I was a key player in pioneering Nigerian fash-
ion. I reoriented the entire Nigerian fashion industry in
looking inward to local fabrics, accessories and designs
in their production line. I also reoriented Nigerians to
start wearing Nigerian clothes which has changed the
Nigerian fashion, garment and textile industry landscape
till today. After reorienting the local industry, we started
taking Nigerian designers since 2000 to the catwalks of
Paris, Milan, London, New York, Tokyo, Sidney etc. Af-
ter my appointment as the only African on the Board of
Governors of the World Fashion Organization in 2008,
my focus changed to expanding my mission from just
Nigeria to the whole of Africa. Also, my appointment
relocated me to various WFO offices around the world
Does it mean Legendary Gold has shunned it’s first
love, fashion for other businesses?
Not at all. For Legendary Gold Limited, it is fashion
for life. Since 2010, our operations moved from just Ni-
geria to the rest of Africa. This was most especially when
we launched Africa Fashion Reception (AFR) in Paris
in 2013. With AFR, our goal is to expand our services
across Africa. We wanted to replicate the success story we
helped to initiate and execute in Nigeria in the fashion,
textile and garment industry and all its value chain to the
whole of Africa. And this we are executing with the part-
nership of the African Union and UNESCO.
What really are the goals of Africa Fashion Recep-
tion?
The major goal of Africa Fashion Reception is to ex-
pand the potential power of fashion as a tool of fighting
poverty in Africa by creating wealth through the em-
powerment of women and youths in the various fashion
vocations through training, capacity building schemes,
workshops and setting up of micro, small/medium scale
businesses thereby supporting the African Union Agenda
2063 and the United Nations Sustainable Development
Goals. Every year, two AFR events are organized. They
are the African and global editions hosted in Addis Ababa
by the African Union and UNESCO in Paris. The Africa Fashion Reception (AFR) is a pan-African initiative.
Every year, the AFR brings together fashion designers,
models, textile and garment manufacturers, retailers,
wholesalers, buyers, ministers, ambassadors, media and
other top dignitaries from all over Africa, in a celebra-
tion of cultural diversity expressed through the artistic
fashion discipline with the proud theme ‘Africa is the
New Inspiration of Global Fashion’. So, what has hap-
pened in the last 15 years is not that we have moved to
other businesses, we have just expanded our operations
with less operation in Nigeria
Tell us about your new project, ‘Africa Cele-
brates’, of what significance would that be to Afri-
can?
Africa Celebrates is our new pan-African event. It
was introduced in 2021 with 18 participating African
countries. Last year, 32 African countries participated while more countries are participating this year. Africa
Celebrates is Art, Culture, Heritage, Tech and Busi-
ness. The theme for Africa Celebrates 2023 is “Achiev-
ing African Integration through Art, Culture, Heritage
& Business Leveraging on AFCFTA Implementa-
tion’’ This year, Africa Celebrates comes up in October
at the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa.
What has kept you going all these years as Lexy?
The zeal and enthusiasm to positively inspire and em-
power the next generation of African youths with the
ideals of pan-Africanism as long as God gives me life.