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Across the globe, there are many cities that identify as nocturnal ones. There’s the classic, New York is a city that never sleeps or What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. In Eastern regions of Africa, you’d hear tales of Cape Town and Nairobi. But in the Western area, all fingers point to one city, Lagos. It doesn’t matter how true this is, but it has made Lagos a lightning rod for international celebrities, one being the Grammy Award winner, Ciara.

Like a moth to a flame, it is really typical to run into global personalities at a Lagos event, but only in December. From the festivals to restaurants, Musicians, influencers, and run-of-the-mill I-Just-Got-Back (IJGBs)— Nigerians in diaspora returning for the Yuletide season.

In 2024, the celebration and oversaturation of public figures saw an all-time high. Mo Africa reports that Lagos made approximately $58 million from car rentals, accommodations, and entertainment expenses from 1.2 million tourists.

With December only a month away, Lagosians have been gearing up for these numbers. But what no one saw was how this could reshape the months before December. Due to ridiculously high airline ticket fares, people who can prefer to make their Lagos trip before December. Coincidentally, both October and November have entertainment calendars that are as enticing as December’s, and it comes without the traffic. One of these events is the annual Lagos Fashion Week.

With 15 years of practice, Lagos Fashion Week has become a hot topic in the fashion industry, making annual appearances on Vogue, Nylon, Dazed, and Wonderland. Nevertheless, fashion has always been a world of its own, and although we’ve had supermodels like Naomi Campbell, Alex Wek, Imaan Hammam and Alton Mason, we’ve never truly had a celebrity of this calibre actively interacting at a fashion week.

Well, there’s the Arise Fashion Week, formerly called THISDAY Music and Fashion Festival, which held shows in Cape Town, Lagos, Abuja, the United Kingdom, and the United States in 2008. These shows were created to raise awareness about Africa and its culture. It featured live performances from Rihanna, Jay-Z, Usher, Chris Brown and Mary J Blige. The artistes were evenly split, with Rihanna taking the stage in Abuja and Mary J Blige in Lagos.

Rihanna performing at THISDAY Music and Fashion Festival in Abuja via Thisdaystyle.ng

This memory might seem rather distant, and without an archive of THISDAY Style at my disposal, I would have second-guessed it. However, this was more than a decade ago, and neither of those artists walked the runway or closed a show. That’s what makes the Ciara appearance so heartwarming, she didn’t interact with African fashion like it was a prop or token, nor was she paid to attend, for her, it was an immersive experience.

CIARA AT ONALAJA

One must imagine several impossible things before they leave their houses in Lagos. That way, nothing ever truly surprises them, or so they think. However, the city has a manner of expanding the citizens’ imaginations. A BRT bus is going to make a detour to drop a passenger, a trailer is trying to outdrive you on an 80 speed limit road, or you’re going to casually run into a Grammy award winner at a private fashion event at Alliance Française, Ikoyi.

There’s a handful of mysteries at Alliance Française; there being a valet sign when there’s no valet, the one in Ikeja appearing to be deprived of major funding, and why fashion brands love using the amphitheatre for shows. It is an amazing experience for a show, but that’s an origin story that intrigues me.

Sitting on the steps of the amphitheatre exudes a more intimate feeling than the standard chairs lined in rows and columns. The best part is every angle is photography friendly, there’s also a clear view of everyone, and everyone kept taking sneak stares because they doubted that it could possibly be Ciara sitting front row at the Onalaja show, in a body on dress that had the words, Onalaja, written on them.

Classic logomania –very American, and lately, it has become a large part of Nigerian fashion, with brands like Cute Saint, Pepper Row, and Adage Studios partaking in it. Onalaja’s latest collection for Spring-Summer 2026 featured an array of designs with its signature way of inscribing its name. Ciara wore one.

The show titled MARKED was about how its founder, Kanyinsola Onalaja, has drawn inspiration from her eclectic life, born in Lagos and schooled in London and Rome. These things have shaped her as well heritage as a woman from Edo. A state in the south-south geopolitical region of Nigeria. In fashion, it is heavily synonymous with beading, and this is reflected in the Onalaja show.

The show took an experimental twist on beads, using translucent beads to make cheeky dresses and two pieces. It was modern and yet nostalgic. It was beautiful to watch someone interpret a tradition through personal and social lenses. Similar was Ciara’s position at the show. She was meticulous and open-minded, asking the designer questions after the show, and turning to the audience to explain, “It is my first fashion show in Africa, I really just want to know what went behind making it.”

The designer obliged, and just when we thought that would be the end of Ciara at fashion week, she stole the show the next day.

CIARA TAKES FRUCHÉ

Lagos Fashion Week has a structure similar to its European counterparts— that is, most shows are held in the same vicinity, but a few do private, off-site shows. The primary location of most shows in Lagos is the tents at the Federal Palace Hotel. Any show outside of the tent is an off-site show. Onalaja was an off-site show that opened the fashion season, and the day two had twenty shows at the Federal Palace.

With twenty shows in one sitting, it is imperative for a designer to go big or go home because no one remembers a boring show. Fruché, founded by Frank Aghuno, is no stranger to this. Over the years, the brand has gotten a reputation for its bold sensuality and outspoken celebration of the human body.

It was no surprise to see bare-chested men, the colour red and sultry silhouettes on the runway. It was rather unusual to see the collection incorporate a traditional Igbo song, and eventually a few traditional pieces. Exploring one’s range in fashion is never shunned upon, and the crowd cheered… maybe he will introduce sensual traditional attire in time.

But the cheers from the crowd reached a crescendo as the final look was revealed as Ciara in a bright red kaftan with voluminous sleeves and a red gele on her head to match. She beamed and glistened as the crowd cheered her on, and she returned with Aghuno for the curtain call.

Fruché was the last show of the day, so she had closed both the show and Lagos Fashion Week day two, and yet, this wasn’t the last of her.

ALL GOOD THINGS COME TO AN END

After two spotlight moments on the first two days, Ciara took a slower approach. At the Federal Palace tents, as the twenty designers allocated for the third day of Lagos Fashion Week, there she sat and observed the runway looks. She could be seen smiling, staring, and showing interest in some brands, one brand she lit up for was For Style’s Sake (FSS). In a white ensemble, sitting front row, she did as she had done at the Onalaja show, being a student, affirming the words she said at the Onalaja show, she’s new here and would really like to learn.

Read also: Is There a ‘Nigeria Core’?