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By Tosin Ajirire
Nigerian fashion designers are now embracing Africanness as the core of their innovations and creativity.
Before now, most designers were limited to the framework of how styles and designs are created by the Western world. However, that has changed with time, and like Afrobeats, African designers are changing the narrative with designs that preserve culture, promote heritage, and contribute to tourism at the grassroots.
Today, there are lots of prolific and reputable fashion designers putting African couture on a global pedestal. One of them is Abuja-based fashion brand, Zurad Clothier.
There are bespoke brands that focus on the general production of clothing and designs with a little infusion of Nigerian culture. But in the case of Zurad Clothier, the brand has established Nigerian designs as its primary product, showcasing the beauty of Africa and helping the up and coming generation to embrace their roots through neatly stitched African fabrics.
An intriguing fact about Zurad Clothier is the way and manner the brand is structured to ensure that each production phase embraces African culture. However, the brand’s scope of production is not limited only to its use of African fabrics. It engages stylists, tailors, pattern drafters, and fashion illustrator whose creative prowess and imagination thrive from the Nigerian culture and primordial fashion style.
Zurad Clothier sources its fabrics from the neighborhoods of Nigeria and West Africa. The brand collaborates with local fabrics merchants to achieve its mass production of garments, serving as a wholesale distributor to African boutiques both at home and in the Diaspora.
With a team of bold people and strategic thinkers, Zurad Clothier is on a mission to expand beyond the shores of Nigeria, while showcasing African fashion as the most appealing form of art and source of beauty. The brand has not only produced multiple ready-to-wear collections that are available on its website: https://zuradclothiers.com but it has also produced fashion accessories like purse, bag, cap and belt from Ankara, Kente, Adire and others.
Zurad Clothier recently launched its latest masterpiece, Ologe Collection, by hosting a scenic fashion exhibition in Abeokuta, Ogun State. The expo was a display of creativity and elegance. Each design in the collection manifested the splendour of Nigerian culture with styles, accessories and packages that embolden the African woman.
The exhibition also saw the fashion brand collaborate with local visual artists to make tapestries from Adire and Ankara fabrics for home and office walls. The term, ‘Ologe’, which is a fusion of two words ‘Oni’ and ‘Oge’ used to describe someone fashionable, was adequately represented. Each costume was a wholesomely crafted design that elevated the beauty and elegance of every woman in a simple yet compelling manner. Ologe Collection is easily an assemblage of attractions that reflected the fashion culture of about five major tribes in Nigeria.
Zurad Clothier has shown that its choice of African fashion is backed by expertise from a team of creative and cultural designers using the right tools. Therefore, with its consistency, ingenuity and intentionality, the fashion brand will in the next five years emerge as one of the biggest in Africa.
