Why Africa? Why now? The designs of Ade Bakare

Ade Bakare’s designs show his use of historic Yoruba textiles and textile design techniques to complement gowns and dresses, less African in style than western. Bakare was born and educated in the United Kingdom, and his early career was firmly based in European fashion. After graduating from Salford University College in 1990, Bakare worked in London’s fashion industry, establishing his own label in 1991. However, the first reference to Africa in his timeline does not occur until 2002, over ten years into his career. Since then he has developed an active relationship with the Nigerian world of high fashion. He became the official designer for First Lady Stella Obasanjo in 2004, opened his Lagos boutique in 2006, and established the Young Designers Creative Competition in 2007. In this article, I propose to look at Ade Bakare in both his London and Lagos fashion worlds to explore the broadening of his fashion identity in the last decade to reference not only his Nigerian family background but also his own Yoruba ethnicity. This article draws on Bakare’s archive of materials as well as an in-depth discussion with him on his work.