It’s been ten years of beauty, style, and fashion since the inception of the Lagos Fashion Week. The last ten years have been nothing short of growth in the fashion industry with Nigerian designs and designers making headway in the international fashion scene. All thanks to Omoyemi Akerele, founder of the platform Lagos Fashion and Design Week for the initiative to create a space where “fashion, arts, ideas and creative endeavors of designers, models, creative’s and industry experts” thrive.

Since the beginning of the Lagos Fashion Week, it has become Nigeria’s, if not Africa’s largest fashion show featuring the continent’s best designers, fashion creative’s, runways shows, workshops, exhibitions, retail experiences, and of course the parties. Significant growth for LFW came in 2012 when it started gaining international attention with brands such as Selfridge & Co attending the event. With this, LFW opened offers to international buyers seeking products on a large platform to source from as well as being featured on magazines such as the New York Times.

The growth of LFW as a platform inversely meant the growth of all kinds of creative’s featured on it, from the designers to models to fashion creative’s, and even creative’s such as photographers. It was a win-win situation for everyone.

We sat down with Kola Oshalusi, a photographer who has been documenting the show since its inception to get his side of the story:

Insigna: Recount your experience in the last ten years.

Kola Oshalusi: The last 10 years has been quite a journey, a journey of growth, experience, and Nostalgia – (Nostalgic when I look back at the images and I can remember vividly the 1st model that ever stepped on the official Lagos fashion week runway, the crop of designers that have evolved from the project, the people I have been able to work with and the value its added to my work.

Insigna: What was LFW like when it started and how was it for creatives like yourself?

Kola: Hmmm.. so like every new project, it’s had its basic issues. from sponsorship to acceptance and quite a few other problems that come with such audacious projects. But one thing stood out, the dream was clear and Omoyemi Akerele was willing to go all the way and it sure paid off for the whole industry. Now you have tons of brands and creatives looking out to the business opportunities that come with each edition of the project.

Insigna: What has evolved since the beginning especially in the fashion photography world?

Kola: Quite a lot has! It has opened up the industry to so many investment opportunities, the fashion photography industry has certainly experienced a boom. Now there’s the intentional effort by fashion brands to have beautiful images, which has created a ripple effect on other sectors of the industry, from fashion styling to hair and makeup.

Insigna: How has LFW helped in boosting your career?

Kola: In tremendous ways. It’s one of those projects that has aided my brand growth and opened me up to international clients, brands, and collaborations. It has also forced me to constantly evolve. A look through my body of work of runway images from years ago and you will clearly see the continuous growth and improvement in the quality of images, angles, turnaround time, and all. I remember someone sending me a message after the 8th edition saying she can’t just get over the quality of images as they keep getting better each year.

Insigna: What are the prospects for fashion/runway photography in Nigeria?

Kola: I don’t think we have scratched the surface yet. It is going to evolve tremendously in the next few years with the adoption of technology and AI,  there will be an increase in demand definitely, but maybe not in the form we know now, but yes it will definitely outlive almost every other genre of photography.