Beautiful new project documenting Nigerian style by Nina Manandhar

Nina Manandhar is the talented lady behind a remarkable book celebrating the UK fashion cultures in all its strange, joyful and often eccentric guises: What we Wore: A People’s Style History. More recently though she’s looked further afield to Nigeria, making some beautiful work documenting a trip she took to Lagos last month. She visited the area for the British Council’s Fashion DNA: Image-Makers project, where she was shooting the work of emerging Nigerian fashion designers.

“I also wanted to get a glimpse of Lagotian style as much as I could during my visit, so I took [pictures of] the cities shopping malls, streets and weddings,” she tells us. “Style is always the first thing I’m drawn to document when I visit a new place, it’s a route in to the people.”

For Nina, the undisputed highlight of her trip was being invited to a Nigerian wedding – a “very glamorous affair, and the perfect place to observe dress and Lagos looks.” She says: “The style was really flamboyant, in contrast to the buildings I shot –  lots of Brutalist style public buildings and architecture. 

“Being in Lagos helped me get more of a deeper understanding of how young people really are using fashion as a tool for building and creating new networks and enterprises for themselves in emerging west African fashion economies and youth markets. I also did a project in Dakar, Senegal last year so its interesting to see the similarities and differences.”

Nina will be speaking at our collecting-themed Nicer Tuesdays on 24 November.