Wearing a pair of jeans became an act of defiance, the day 12-year-old Omoyemi Akerele told her mother she’d only be wearing the tie-back frocks, her mom preferred to dress her in, to church on Sundays. Even as a young girl, the founder of Lagos Fashion Week knew when something no longer made sense to her, an intuition she’s honed that’s become personal style, also personal adaptability.

This was the case, too, when she pursued a career in law. She completed three law degrees, contemplating starting a fourth before taking up a promising position at a law firm. Then she walked away.

“I am the kind of person who can go to work every day and just get on with things. But I also knew that there had to be more, something more purposeful for me so I left law,” Omoyemi says. Her fantasy about a career in law, she jokes, came from watching too many episodes of the early 2000s hit US legal comedy-drama Ally McBeal.

From law, Omoyemi turned to becoming a personal shopper, fine-tuning her styling skills on friends and making the MTV-inspired fashion trends of high-waisted bell bottoms and Dr Martens of the time a thing for young Lagos citizens. This was followed by an intern position for True Love West Africa, the South African magazine’s Nigerian edition.

On one of her first assignments, Omoyemi recognised instantly that something was ‘off’ about the magazine’s content. She remembers walking into the editor’s office to put forward the case that the West Africa edition should have Nigerian content, not something borrowed from cousins in the South.

“The editor said, ‘Fine, do it.’ I said I would but I had never worked on a shoot before,” says Omoyemi.

Omoyemi chose the location of Badagry, the former slave port in the country, west of Lagos. It was an unexpected choice for a fashion shoot, but also unforgettable. For Omoyemi the choice of location was a way to intersect fashion and history—even the ones of trauma, culture, and the ownership of a narrative.

“Storytelling is a must. What I love most about fashion on the continent is that it creates an emotional connection. It leaves room for you to share and to show how we’re interconnected and interwoven,” she says. “Our history is also part of our daily lives; it evokes a sense of community, of shared responsibility and the process of creativity.”

Thirteen years ago, Omoyemi founded Lagos Fashion Week as a platform for storytelling. This came after she graduated from her intern position to become a fashion editor, style consultant and entrepreneur. Over the years she’s worked with the Nigerian Export Promotion Council and has consulted for the British Fashion Council as well as with the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Victoria & Albert Museum in the United Kingdom.

I never set out to shape the Nigerian fashion industry or anything like that. It was about realising that there is so much talent on the scene and thinking about how to harness it

Being able to make fashion responsive and relatable in a changing world has seen Omoyemi create the sister project to Lagos Fashion Week called Woven Threads. Now in its fifth edition this April, Woven Threads takes place six months before the annual Lagos Fashion Week. This two-day event brings together all fashion players beyond the runway, focusing on the issues faced by the entire fashion value chain.

For many years now, Omoyemi has recognised that there are issues with the production and consumption of fashion. She emphasises the need to recalibrate social and economic growth models to align with circular value cycles. This, she believes, will better serve the industry in a time of worsening environmental crisis.

“Woven Threads is inspired by traditional crafts and the need to promote the wealth of talent we have in Africa. But it’s also about pushing for ways to adopt a more responsible approach to producing fashion on the continent,” says Omoyemi. She adds that the continent needs to capitalise on being ‘naturally agile’. She believes Africans have an almost inherent understanding of waste management, recycling, sharing, craftsmanship, traditions and traceability. There’s also respect and value for what it means when clothing and small treasures are handed down through generations.

“I laugh sometimes because while the Global North goes on about these things, it’s what we have always done in Africa – but we may not always be the best at telling our stories,” Omoyemi says.

It remains her focus to tell Africa’s fashion story for impact. Omoyemi’s creative platforms continue to celebrate the best designs from the continent while also pushing for tougher conversations. As the ultimate stylist, she knows it’s about tweaking, refitting, and reframing. As she says, “We need to be more deliberate, and we also need to be prepared to go back to the drawing board.” This is how she restyles fashion, an industry, and perhaps even futures too.

• Woven Threads V will take place from 12 to 14 April
• Lagos Fashion Week will take place in late October
• Follow Omoyemi Akerele on Instagram
• Images supplied by Omoyemi Akerele and Lagos Fashion Week. Main feature image taken by Chidinma Chukwu