016: Niche Media & Lagos Fashion Week

WELCOME BACK FRIENDS 🍂

If you’re just joining, welcome to the weekly dispatch, a hyper-curated take on the best of diaspora fashion and beauty.

Join us as a Founding Supporter and receive access to special perks, including quarterly gift guides, bonus posts, and access to the archives.

As always, any tips or questions, please reach out to [email protected].

DISPATCH 016 —

This week, we’re checking in on Lagos Fashion Week, planning our budgets accordingly for an in-person sale, and dreaming about a cheeseburger. Plus: CFDA runner-up news and where in the world Andre Leon Talley’s things ended up. But first, a new magazine to mull over….

AIR AFRIQUE ISSUE 01

A couple months ago, Bottega Veneta announced its support for the newly-established print publication Air Afrique. At the time, it was described as “a platform dedicated to afro-diasporic art and conversation” and followed in their nascent tradition of capitalizing smaller-scale publications. Alas, the first issue of Air Afrique has arrived.

Based in Paris, the publication was founded by a collective of creatives, leveraging the original IP behind the pan-African airline of the same name, that operated flights between Senegal, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Niger, Congo, Chad, Benin, and Burkina Faso from 1961 to 2002.

To commemorate the partnership, Bottega Veneta unveiled a capsule of blankets designed by Franco-Sudanese designer Abdel El Tayeb, building on the heritage and contemporary expression in Sudan (which feels like a tiny bright spot considering the rather dire human rights concerns ongoing).

This recent wave of niche media publications has been well-documented, especially in a time period marked by what feels like a bland-ification of mainstream media and a rise of independent voices focused on tender subcultural commentary. Other new publications, such as Blanc Magazine and to a lesser extent, the new-and-improved Dazed Magazine (led by Ib Kamara) offer a window into a slice of contemporary diasporic life — in particular, a picture of glamour, fantasy, and/or realism that may not be presented in broader media outlets.

While there is strength and power in uncovering or reframing subcultural narratives, the very nature of the medium necessitates a narrow audience. The funding contribution highlights a key pain point of independent print media and Bottega Veneta’s involvement surely assuages the concern in the short-term. Plus: the brand can be associated with desirable creatives who ultimately drive the underlying cool and zeitgeist the bigger luxury brands require to feed the machine. When scaled properly, smaller publications can be quite profitable with the right distribution and the right advertisers.

You can order your copy today.

LAGOS FASHION WEEK / OCT 25 - 29

Ten years in the making, Lagos Fashion Week is finally upon us. The 2023 iteration kicked off with a invitation-only press preview at The Arts Hotel in Victoria Island. Attendees were clad in homegrown designers and the setup felt a far cry from the early days when it was once known as Lagos Fashion & Design Week. Take a look!

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27

— Eki Kere Inspired by nature and art, founder Abasiemkeme Ukanireh is driven by a gender- and size-inclusive agenda that makes comfort and craftsmanship a priority.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 29

— I.AM.ISIGO Celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Lagos-born brand, I.AM.ISIGO is a favorite for nomadic conscious wearable art.

Separately, the launch of this week coincides with a circulating report from UNESCO on the state of the fashion industry. We haven’t read it… yet! Let us know if you want us to share the highlights.

ON OUR RADAR

Verso Works is hosting a showcase of design, furniture, and special objects entitled SPOTLIGHT II in Tribeca, New York through November 10. Our beloved favorites Mabeo and nmbelloStudio will be on display. (Link)

Ikoyi London partnered with Shake Shack on a one-day-only custom burger and fries — in detail, it was a cheeseburger with mustard greens, fermented scotch bonnet relish, efo spice emulsion, and pumpkin miso butter. Sounds dreamy. (Link)

Diotima was named as one of two runner-ups as part of the CFDA / Vogue Fashion Fund Prize this week, which comes with a $100,000 prize. Last time we wrote about the CFDA was on the back of Pyer Moss win, which now feels like eons ago. (Link)

In other Diotima news, now’s your chance to shop the collections in-person with a pop-up shop on October 28 and October 29 in New York. (Link)

Andre Leon Talley‘s goods are re-recirculating in the second-hand market. This time, at What Goes Around Comes Around with some steep prices. If you’re in the market for a Louis Vuitton x Stephen Sprouse trunk, you’re in luck. (Link)