HVL Clothings’ Urban Cool Collection showcases beauty of African prints

By Christy Anyanwu

All roads led to the Glitz Event Centre, Lagos for the Fashion Finest Africa – The Epic Show, which held on May 31, 2024.

It was a gathering of fashion designers pushing their products and designs onto the global stage, and building their brands’ reputation in the process.

The event was a stiff competition, with designers basking in the spotlight while also craving room for improvement. An iconic designer that got the crowd raving was HVL Clothings, which had creative details embedded in its simple and colourful designs.

At the epic show, HVL Clothings displayed its Urban Cool Collection, featuring a limited product line of fancy T-shirts and shorts, crop tops and mini skirts, cargo shorts, and checkered shorts. A cursory glance at the collection reveals simplicity, but a microscopic look into the choice of fabric and tailoring process unveils impressive artistry of the brand.

HVL’s idea of transforming essential clothing into elegant pieces by combining cotton, polyester, and wool with locally sourced fabric like Ankara is highly commendable.

Before now, we’ve had designers who customized local fabrics into T-shirts and shorts. However, HVL has highlighted our cultural tapestry with minor elements on the fabrics in a creative way that makes the brand’s identity recognisable.

HVL Clothings’ Creative Designer, Titilope Adeniyi, brought to the fore her ability as a garment creator by tapping the pocket lines, collars, waistbands, and sleeves with Ankara fabric.

Having conceived an inscription in her mind, she then proceeded to utilize her handcrafting skill to embelish some of the clothes with Ankara fabrics. She also introduced flair and aesthetics by using sheer fabric for a few sleeves, as pleated shoulders on the T-shirts and basic pleats on the skirts. This approach reinforces HVL’s identity of blending city styles with rich African prints, promoting them as a minimalist fashion brand deeply rooted in Nigerian heritage.

With the choice of colours, including white, pink, blue, green and blue combining well with multi-patterned Ankara fabrics, each piece further reflected Titilope’s creativity and deep appreciation for her African heritage. The Urban Cool Collection showcased the beauty of African prints and how seamlessly they can fit into modern wardrobes.

The feedback from the event indicated that, with Titilope’s passion for innovative designs, she is definitely on her way to developing HVL Clothings into a reputable global brand.