San Francisco Frontiers - Nigerian designer pushes 'Afro-lux' onto the global fashion scene

Founder Reni Folawiyo is now 10 years into forging what she calls "Afro-lux", Alara serving as a homebase for designs that "play between tradition and modernity", while working to elevate African fashion both at home and abroad.

Inside, clothing from upscale African designers sits next to western brands, decorative art and books, part of Folawiyo's mission to put design from the continent on equal footing with established giants.

The lattice on the building's exterior is based on adire textiles, popular among the Yoruba ethnic group in southwest Nigeria.

"A lot of the beautiful things that people were making in different parts of Africa were not celebrated in the way that I thought they should be celebrated," the 60-year-old told AFP of the rural handiwork that often inspires the work on display.

"I felt very strongly in my belief that these objects and these people had value."

- Music stars as style ambassadors -

West African design is having a moment, Folawiyo told AFP in an interview in Lagos, wearing sunglasses with bright pink lenses.

In May, Nigerian music stars Burna Boy, Tems and Ayra Starr graced New York's Met Gala, dressed by British-Ghanaian designer Ozwald Boateng.

But for Folawiyo, it is not enough to just occupy the occasional runway.

"At the moment, the best way to platform designers outside Africa is to partner and collaborate with institutions that are of repute," she said, pointing to her recent pop-up store and exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum as well as a collaboration with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Taking notes from her own Yoruba culture -- with its rich textiles, bright colours and lavish ceremonies -- she's also found inspiration in the "rugged" design of Senegal and the "certain sophistication" found in Ivory Coast.

Alara is "my own idea of what a celebration of Africa looks like", she told AFP.

- Culture through cuisine -

Behind the boutique lies the NOK restaurant, whose executive chef is Pierre Thiam, the Senegalese chef who has led the charge in bringing the region's food scene to the United States.

While still high end, NOK's prices are more affordable than Alara's wares -- a tricky balancing act in a country like Nigeria, home to wealthy one-percenters in the tech and oil industries, a middle class battered by inflation and millions of informal workers.

Among Alara's austere interior of black walls and white concrete, a green dress from the Nigerian brand Eki Kere retails for 325,000 naira (about $210), while a table from Senegalese-Nigerian studio Salu Iwadi can fetch up to 10 times the price.

Folawiyo herself comes from Lagos's elite, as the wife of business magnate Tunde Folawiyo and daughter of former Western Region attorney general Lateef Adegbite.

Yet getting others -- including potential business partners -- to see her vision of African-born luxury was a struggle when she first attempted to launch Alara, she said.

"But I was very committed to it and I had great belief in myself and my idea," she said.

Now, firmly planted in Nigeria, Folawiyo organises fashion shows abroad, including at Barbados's CARIFESTA XV this month.

But the industry's success, she said, ultimately relies on "passing on knowledge to future generations".

H.King--SFF