The Lens, October 2026
Two houses come into view, five step out of it, and Lagos Fashion Week arrives with a theme that could have been written for this site.
October. It has been five months since the last letter, and the lens has moved. In May we were pointing at just under three thousand pieces. This month it is 3,586, drawn from thirty studios' own shops, and twenty-five of those studios now refresh straight from the source rather than from notes we took by hand. When a studio reprices, restocks or retires a piece, this site follows.
Two houses come into view for the first time. Atafo, Mai Atafo's house in Lekki, arrives with 222 pieces: silk tuxedos, bib-front shirts, penny loafers, and the runway looks of its SS23 and SS24 collections, each listed by number. Our profile reads the shop as an argument about the tuxedo. Zephans & Co, the Lagos ready-to-wear label, arrives with 185, sixteen of them cut from hand-woven akwete.
Others come into sharper focus. Ejiro Amos Tafiri's catalogue here has grown from thirteen pieces to 276, Yutee Rone's from ten to 162, Emmy Kasbit's from nineteen to 128. Tongoro's couture line from Dakar is now here in full, eighteen pieces, sixteen of them made to order. What that phrase actually promises is the subject of this month's craft note.
Five studios step out of view, at least for now. NAIA, Bree The Label, Aga Culture, Joseph Ejiro and Oya Abeo reached us through ADJOAA, and ADJOAA no longer lists them. We have taken their pieces down rather than send you to empty pages. Their profiles stay, and we will link them again as soon as we know where they sell.
Lagos Fashion Week
Lagos Fashion Week runs from 28 October to 1 November, with runway shows at the Federal Palace Hotel from the 29th to the 31st and off-site presentations across the city on the final day. The designer lineup had not been announced when we went to press. A correction while we are here: our May letter called the dates official and gave them as 22 to 26 October. They had not been announced, and those dates were wrong. The May letter now says so.
This year's theme is CRAFTED: Heritage. Innovation. Circular Futures. It could have been written for this catalog. Hand-woven akwete at Zephans & Co, hand-woven aso-oke at Abiola Olusola and Wafflesncream, hand-beading at Onalaja and Hertunba: the heritage is already on the rail, and most of it is for sale from the people who made it.
Also this month: an essay on why every price here stays in the currency the studio chose. The promise is the same as ever. We take no margin, and every link ends at the maker's own shop. See you in November.