The first E1 event in Africa turned Lagos into something electric. The air felt heavier, charged, like the city had been waiting for this kind of moment. From Didier Drogba to Wyclef Jean, everyone was here. The noise of engines mixed with Afrobeats, the humidity with flashbulbs, the familiar chaos with a new kind of attention.
Photographed by Kash Faje
Amid it all, Super model Maria Borges arrived. Calm, centered, the kind of presence that doesn’t need to announce itself. I wanted to create something that mirrored that energy. Not spectacle. Not noise. A story in texture, movement, and restraint.
Photographed by Kash Faje
We had almost no time. Pieces were being pulled while fittings happened in hotel corridors. Lagos nights moved faster than reason. But there’s something about urgency that sharpens instinct, and instinct is where styling lives.
Photographed by Kash Faje
We finally landed on two looks from designers I trust deeply: Kilentar and Banke Kuku. Women whose work speaks softly but carries the weight of craft. Their pieces hold that Lagos tension: rhythm and discipline, grace and grit.
Photographed by Kash Faje
The diamonds came from Akano, stones cut with memory, shaped by hands that know heritage. When Maria stepped out, it wasn’t about glamour. It was about presence. The way light hit her skin, the way fabric caught the air, the way history sat quietly in the details. I think about luxury differently now. It is not about price or noise. It is about control, the ability to be still in a city that never stops moving.
That day in Lagos was about creating a moment that felt honest, a reflection of African sophistication that does not ask for validation. It just exists.Fashion, for me, has always been that: documentation, return, memory. The reminder that every silhouette, every stitch, every photograph is a small act of storytelling.
Styling and Creative Direction: Jahn Affah
