Straight Out of Nigeria, the Freshest Street Style Around—As Seen on the Boys

For proof that fashion is a truly global language, check out the refreshingly flamboyant peacocking that went down at Lagos’s fashion week

              

“Lagosian style is like a fingerprint,” says the designer Adebayo Oke-Lawal. “No one’s is the same.”

If ever you needed a point person in Nigeria for local fashion wisdom, Oke-Lawal is it. His gender-noncompliant, colorfully inventive line Orange Culture is among Lagos’s strongest collections, his most recent of which—shown this past weekend at Lagos Fashion and Design Week—offered blood red, cinched leather blousons and huggy pants with trailing handlebar ribbons.

               

As is the case with every Fashion Week these days, street style is still a to-do. And where the phenomenon of dressing up to the nines and prancing about in front of a thousand photographers can seem a bit tired in New York City, the way they go about things in Lagos—especially the men—feels fresh, like with the pairing of Gucci grosgrain flip-flops and a pomegranate red traditional men’s caftan. A unique fingerprint, indeed.

“It’s impossible to describe us as a collective,” Oke-Lawal adds, “but the common thread is a sense of adventure. The average Lagosian’s wardrobe is a party, and every trend, every style is invited.” Here, Nigeria’s most dapper gents show us how it’s done. 

                 
http://www.vogue.com/