Abiola Olusola Unveils Fall/Winter 2023 Collection

Nigerian contemporary womenswear brand Abiola Olusola has recently unveiled its latest collection for the Fall/Winter 2023 season. From sleek, minimalist dresses to printed separates and sleek tailoring, the brand’s designs incorporate local textiles and feature elements such as ruching and asymmetric shapes. The new collection demonstrates the brand’s commitment to showcasing African craft, and blending traditional methods with a modern approach.

Working with a muted color palette that includes black, brown, navy blue, and solid-backed floral prints, the collection reinforces the brand’s minimalist yet detail-oriented aesthetic. Streamlined silhouettes are punctuated with cut-outs and flowing, modest tunics are given an innate sensuality with lace panels. But at the heart of each design is the undercurrent of femininity and functionality that makes each piece easy to wear.

For Abiola Olusola, sustainability and slow-fashion principles are an inherent part of its foundation. The designer and founder Abiola Adeniran-Olusola is dedicated to working with local African craftsmen and women to create and highlight ways in which traditional fabrics can still be part of a modern wardrobe.

“It just made sense to me to want to use great quality fabrics, design beautiful clothes that wouldn’t go out of style, and produce what was needed. I couldn’t imagine operating any other way,” Adeniran-Olusola said in an interview with Glazia. “It also came by as a way of sustaining my business by operating small, the cost of mass production is tremendous and it’s an unattractive model for me. Beautiful things take time and we like to take our time to make our clothes.”

She is motivated by empowering artisans, producing with sustainability and waste management in mind, carefully crafting each item of clothing from fabric to finished product, and pushing the African narrative forward through fashion.