The pandemic made it clear that we need to depend on our homegrown textiles so Lagos Fashion Week launched Woven Threads to platform these brands. After a four-minute fashion video using accessories and textiles to explore the politics of identity and culture, it was crystal clear to the audience that this designer was a genius, two years later, the world is saying the same. This is Tolu Coker.
Lightning is said to never strike twice in the same spot, but Tolu Coker does and her strikes are equally as bright. She began her year when she unveiled her Autumn-Winter (AW24) collection in February. The collection quickly gained popularity among fashion enthusiasts and soon became a staple in the industry. It is September and the collection has been featured in several magazines like Financial Times, Essence and Vogue Polska. It has also been worn by Ariana Grande, Tems, and Amelia Dimoldenberg.
Right when the public was still obsessing over the Autumn collection, Coker dropped another marvellous one as her Spring-Summer (SS25) at London Fashion Week. This found the same success and has become one of the most memorable brands from the British leg of the fashion season. For Victoria’s Secret Angel and British top model, Leomie Anderson, it was a moment of rheumy eyes for her, “Rewatching the finale of the Tolu Coker show makes me emotional because it’s the most black women I’ve ever seen at one time on the runway.”
However, while the world appreciates Tolu Coker, the designer, another pivotal aspect of her career is her storytelling. “It’s all about the details! Tolu Coker just resurged my love for fashion. Love, black joy and storytelling this spring/summer collection will remain one of the best collections (to me) released this year. The tailoring, pleated skirts, leather jackets and the Sunday’s best hats. Every look is nothing shy of perfection,” High Fashion X account, Muglare on why he loved the show.
Everyone understands the messages Tolu Coker relays. But for Nigerians, it is different because like Nelson Mandela said, if you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart and Coker aims for the heart of Nigerians with her collections.
WHERE IT BEGAN:
Two years after the global lockdown, the Nigerian fashion industry was still grappling to regain its footing. Tolu Coker participated in the third edition of Woven Threads, a platform focusing on sustainable fashion practices and ethical production. Strategically, held on Earth Day, the event was designed to thoroughly explore circularity in the fashion ecosystem by igniting discussions about the vital role of technology in enabling sustainable practices and enhancing the lifecycle of garments.
The brand which launched in late 2018 but could not function properly until 2021, showcased a digital presentation at Woven Threads. Coker titled the collection, Soro Soke: Diaspora 68, it served as a nod to the 2020 End Sars protests. For Coker, her designs were a way of honouring the untold stories of British Nigerians, herself and some of her dearest recreated moments from the photo albums of her late Father, Kayode Coker.
Coker’s father worked as a community activist and photojournalist in North Kensington, England and in a detailed Instagram post, she explained, “My Father’s work and photo archives document the vast relationship between Nigeria and Britain over many generations. For SORO SOKE, I wanted to revisit intimate stories of the presence, impact and contribution of British Nigerians who studied in Britain before returning to Nigeria in the 1960s and 70s. Though a part of our stories, suffering does not define us. We existed and exist, outside the gaze of colonialism. Generation after generation Nigerians continue to strive towards the progression and liberation of Africans in Nigeria and across the Diaspora.”
Coker believes the preservation of our stories is important and followed up with her next collection, Chavah [Hebrew, translated as To Give Life]. “From untold histories of matriarchy across Africa and the diaspora to the influence and depiction of Black women in the church, the evolution of ragtime and jazz, ‘Chavah’ offers an alternative lens and narrative to redefine and reconsider ideas of femininity.”
Coker’s repeated creation of prints with people’s faces is an ode to the Nigerian tradition, “Motifs and emblems are printed in respect and recognition of the lives that have come and passed.”
Sticking to her signature prints, silhouettes, and love of hats; Coker’s formula remains the same but her next collection was the one earning the highest score.
THE STORY BEHIND HER BREAKOUT COLLECTION:
Coker’s autobiographical collections have explored various subjects from her Yoruba spirituality to her mother’s life as a hawker in Nigeria. She covered the January issue of British Vogue alongside two other designers, Ahluwalia and Torishéju Dumi. The issue celebrated Black female designers changing the fashion game, it is a mere coincidence that they are all Nigerian.
Coker debuted her AW24 collection, Broken English at London Fashion Week in partnership with UGGs. For “Broken English,” she provided the audience with an immersive experience, incorporating vibrations of her mother reciting her family’s Oriki over Juls’ mix of the beats of the ‘dun dun’ (Yoruba talking drum) and saxophone sounds. “Yoruba is a language dear to my heart and the native tongue of my ancestors. I grew up in a world where ‘language’ was an infusion of both Yoruba and English and affirmations in the form of my family ‘Oriki’ were spoken over me throughout my childhood.”
Broken English is a nod to the slang term for a non-standard version of English, often called pidgin. The collection showcased traditional British silhouettes, but with an upcycled twist, incorporating Nigerian accessories like cowries and shekere in a non-standard manner.
THE PEOPLE’S PRINCESS
Coker returned to the British runway with OLAPEJU, a collection that renewed the Tolu Coker wave. Olapeju is a more personal version of Chavah, as it is an ode to her mother and all the women who have shaped us today. She explained further in an Instagram post, “In Yoruba, My Mother’s Name [Olapeju] means ‘Where Wealth Gathers’ and there couldn’t be a more fitting name to represent the journey this has been.”
The collection featured upcycled leather, tailored blazers, and retro suits in matching prints. The venue was designed to replicate the living room she grew up in, creating a homey yet festive atmosphere. According to Refinery29, “She pulls a lot from her mother’s wardrobe, specifically the pieces she wore in London when she moved from Lagos in the 1970s.” The collection became one of the most tweeted-about brands from London Fashion Week and moved supermodels to tears.
Tolu Coker has had a wonderful run for 2024, however, the most beautiful part is every collection tells a story about Nigerians. Everything we have ever done and experienced shapes who we are and she wants to stitch that into the sands of time. Like she said to Refinery29, “I think through clothing, you can create this documentation of a time, both present and past, that will serve as some form of archive in years to come, to say: ‘We were here.’
