If you have ever copped a trendy co-ord set off Instagram or seen a TikToker brag about their custom fit, chances are the outfit didn’t come from a glitzy boutique. It came from Yaba, Aba, or Osogbo. Sewn by a skilled tailor, dyed with indigenous prints, and sent out into the world without a brand name, but full of finesse and beauty.

Lagos may be Nigeria’s fashion capital in terms of shows, shoots, and celebrities, but the real engine room of some fashion production hums in the markets, backrooms, and bustling shops across the country. In Yaba, fashion is fast, fierce, and fiercely local.

Yaba, West Africa’s largest fashion hub

Lagos Mainland, Yaba is many things: a tech hub, education hub, night life centre, among several others. But for a fashion insider, it is a place bubbling with designers and skilled tailors and perhaps the largest cluster of haberdasheries in West Africa.

Inside Tejuosho Market and streets around Ojuelegba, hundreds of tailors, fabric sellers, and pattern drafters run a production system that can rival any ready-to-wear factory anywhere in the world. They sew everything: the trendy ankara palazzo pants, mesh tops, linen trousers, bubu gowns, and senator sets. You bring the design, and they deliver it in a day or two.

Many online fashion vendors depend on these artisans. Some openly collaborate, while others mark up the price and market the fits as exclusive drops. Yaba is the hand behind the couture.

Aba: Backbone of Naija’s clothing economy

 Move eastward to Abia State, and you will find Aba, the OG of mass fashion production in Nigeria. Aba is known for its rugged energy and industrial layout. Aba houses thousands of garment workers who produce everything, from school uniforms to denim jackets, footwears and handbags. Name a fashion item and you will find several shops producing it. Entire streets are dedicated to buttonholes, zippers, and embroidery.

Aba boys are famous for their innovation. They can replicate a design from a photo, tweak it to fit a different body type, and the best part is that they specialise not only in clothing, they make shoes, bags, hats, belts, etc. One would say that they are the Chinatown of Nigeria because, in many ways, Aba is what China is to the West African fashion scene. But unlike China, these producers are rarely credited.

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Indeed, the story is told of one executive of a leading global sportswear company who visited Nigeria, and boasting he could tell his brand’s shoes from its bootleg. While in Aba, he could hardly believe his eyes as he could not tell the original from the imitation. There was no difference!

But beyond the buzz of Yaba and the machinery of Aba, smaller hubs are making their mark.

In Kano, traditional wear like kaftans and babariga are sewn at an industrial scale. Osogbo hosts local batiks (adire) makers who are blending the cultural heritage with high fashion. These are part of a decentralised but powerful fashion supply chain.

Why it matters

Producers in the fashion industry are the real SMEs: With little to no support, they are innovating, creating value and millions of jobs in the clothing ecosystem. They support informal workers, empower men and women, and keep the culture alive while still putting food on the table for many.

Imagine what could happen if government policies and private investments flowed into these local hubs, to deliver stable and affordable power supply, better and more modern machinery, training and better access to markets even beyond these shores. With the growing Nigerian Diaspora communities across the world – the United Kingdom, United States, South Africa and lately United Arab Emirates, international markets are being created for these fashion entrepreneurs.

Nigeria has a fashion industry; you just have to know where to look.

When next someone asks you where your outfit is from, do not be shy to say it is Nigerian-made, because the drip is right here in fact.

Anita Chinedu