WANA SAMBO LAUNCHES FLAGSHIP STORE

It had been a long time coming. Designer Wana Sambo, is Nigerian fashion industry’s stubborn caterpillar. The eponymously named label has been around for a while, a times experimental; sometimes avant-garde; never mainstream. However, it never went away. It would seem creative director; Wana Sambo has been looking for a design recipe that works. Oft times, her collections are misunderstood half because perhaps the industry wasn’t ready for her adventurous tastes and partly because she didn’t take time to provide clarity, carry the consumer along. Her collection at last year’s edition of Lagos Fashion and Design Week was a game changer. It showed a designer who had matured; who had perhaps come full circle with – finally- a design aesthetic that worked; and it was a winner. The collection was an ultra-feminine cohesive, body-conscious worship of the grown woman who was not only unapologetic about her sexuality but knew exactly when and where to announce it. Since the collection showed, the brand name has been a new taste in the mouth, increasingly worn by celebrities on the red carpet and courted by stylists for editorials. The designer wasted no time in consolidating. She has now opened a flagship store that has on offer all things Wana Sambo. Fashion retail, is a rough, newly charted territory in Nigeria and one must salute the designers who go the haul, alone. With this new venture and a tested design direction, it now seems the Wana Sambo brand is hatched anew. The fashion industry’s new butterfly is now in flight.