Wazobia Nigeria

NOTE: The publishing of this documentary, one person’s opinion and Western media’s view of Nigeria, does not mean we agree with all of the depictions or story telling about who Nigerians are, a nation made of 150million people. Nigeria’s fashion industry is comprised of numerous layers. Nigeria Fashion Week has been around for 14years and it is unfair to reduce Nigeria’s fashion movement to a slant that is only focused on gays in Nigeria’s fashion industry; per the headline and summaries sent to us.

(It plays on the Western stereotype that if you are gay, you must be in fashion. Homosexuals are not categorically reduced to fashion just because they are gays. Simply not true and inapplicable to Nigeria’s fashion industry. Also, it undermines and weakens the hard work of many in the industry (non-gays) and organizations that have worked hard to get the industry to where it is. “Gay Fashion Scene in Nigeria” with Nigeria Fashion Week serving as exhibit for that. Really?)

Other stereotypes of endowed Nigerian/black men and the 419 scammers depicted here, we simply disagree with. Nigeria’s fashion story is not a gay or 419 story. It is an economic story of the resilience and hard work of Nigerians (all Nigerians) who have worked hard to create the thriving and growing industry we have now. Enjoy the documentary but wear your objective hat.

-Uduak Oduok

Fashion Week Internationale (an original series from VICE Media devoted to traveling all across the globe to discover fashion weeks that you’ve probably never heard of before), travels to Lagos, Nigeria to uncover its annual Fashion Week, while also discovering the gay fashion scene in Nigeria.

“Nigeria is an endemically corrupt yet God-fearing nation, financially exploited by its mega rich pastors. It’s a nation on the cusp of outlawing homosexuality, but enforcing a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, with numerous celebrities in the public eye out-gaying anyone the US could throw at them. Nigerians earn on average less than $2 a day, despite the country’s industrial capital city Lagos being more expensive than Moscow, with an elite glitterati popping bottles to afrobeat all around Victoria Island.

Which brings us to Nigerian Fashion Week. When we visited, it was toting its eighth excursion as the “Going Green” Fashion Week, in one of the most polluted and congested cities in the world, where you have to add two hours onto any normal journey time to account for the horrendous traffic. It would be quicker to get out and walk, unless you’re a foreigner, aka free money beacon, for an array of scams and muggings you only have cough loud enough to attract.”