With just days to go, Fashion Finest Africa (FFA) has ramped up excitement for its highly anticipated Epic Show 2025, doubling down on its mission to amplify bold, innovative voices in African fashion while forging stronger global connections.
Scheduled for July 5 and July 6, 2025, at The Podium, Lekki, Lagos, the two-day event will spotlight fresh and rising designers, creatives, and fashion disruptors from across Africa, including participants from Germany and the UK, alongside Nigeria’s brightest emerging talents.
Beyond the runway, the organisers say that this year’s edition will highlight the contributions of stylists, creative directors, show producers, makeup artists, and fashion-tech innovators.
“Fashion Finest began over 16 years ago in the UK during London Fashion Week as a platform to elevate emerging fashion creatives,” Founder, FFA, Sola Oyebade, popularly known as Mr Mahogany noted. “Bringing it to Nigeria was about planting that same spirit here—unearthing brilliance and giving it room to rise. Epic Show 2025 is a continuation of that promise: to amplify talent, drive innovation, and keep pushing boundaries.”
FFA’s Lead Strategist, Waire Emonefe, emphasised the platform’s commitment to industry access and global positioning:
“We’re not just showing clothes, we’re creating industry pathways. There’s so much pride now in who we are as Africans – our fabrics, our stories, our richness. The world is finally turning its eyes towards Africa. This year’s edition is focusing on how African fashion can scale through funding, innovation and storytelling.”
She also noted that panel sessions at the event will explore timely themes such as funding for fashion entrepreneurs in Africa, sustainability beyond fabrics – exploring how fashion impacts climate and ecological systems – and the urgent need for business literacy and collaboration in the fashion space. This year’s panel lineup includes Mai Atafo, who will address common missteps by emerging fashion creatives, and Chidubem from Innovate UK, who will contribute insights on fashion and innovation.
The conversation around funding emerged as one of the most critical talking points of the press conference, cutting straight to the heart of what continues to limit the growth of Africa’s fashion ecosystem. While talent, creativity, and cultural capital are abundant, many emerging fashion entrepreneurs – whether designers, stylists, makeup artists, or show producers — are building without structure, scaling without capital, and succeeding despite a system that often overlooks them. This year, Fashion Finest Africa Epic Show 2025 places that gap at the centre of the conversation.
One of the event’s leading panel sessions will confront the challenges creatives face when trying to access funding, attract investment, or even navigate basic business infrastructure. The goal isn’t to challenge the system but to spotlight solutions and begin building a more sustainable future for fashion on the continent.
Two designers from FFA’s previous editions also offered attendees a preview of what to expect and how the platform has transformed their brand exposure and professional networks. The show will feature designers like Nubik Attire, Nenysty Atelier, Tsmallz Apparel, The Vantage Gent, The Fleks Apparel, House of Gold, among others on the runway showcase.
