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As the West embraces controversial fashion icons, we examine whether Nigeria’s creative landscape can similarly reconcile with its own subversive talent.
It’s been a running joke for centuries that artists are often more appreciated in death than in life. The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, which has honoured several designers with a posthumous Met Gala theme, can attest to this phrase. But on rare occasions, they have celebrated a living designer — twice, to be precise. Yves Saint Laurent (1983) and Rei Kawakubo (2017). However, on July 31, earlier than usual, the Met Museum announced the 2027 Met Gala theme, and it was no one other than the brilliant John Galliano: Horizons. But the problem with Galliano is not that he is alive; it is that he once praised Hitler and told people their ancestors would have been gassed at a cafe in France.
He was swiftly punished, as he lost his job at Dior and was forced to pay a sum of 6000 euros for being convicted of two counts of anti-Semitic behaviour. Although Galliano blamed drugs and alcohol for the outbursts, The New York Times revealed that this incident was not an aberration. By their account, “he reportedly spent several hours naked in the elevator of the Ritz hotel in London, growling at guests who tried to enter and telling them he was a lion; he was subsequently ejected from the hotel.”
Nevertheless, all these incidents occurred in the 2000s, and the infamous outburst took place in 2010. We are past a decade now; Galliano has done a lot of introspection and atonement, and finally it is paying off. He is undoubtedly one of the most talented designers ever, and the Met Gala, also known as the fashion Olympics, is synonymous with fashion excellence. But he is not the only controversial figure fashion has chosen to forgive. If talent can earn redemption on the global stage, who gets that same grace at home — and who doesn’t?”
What does it mean to be a controversial designer?
Tyla wearing the controversial designer Alexander Wang “Riot” studded heels via Pinterest Controversial designers are not always controversial for the same reason. Sometimes it is what they do; sometimes it is what their work represents. Recently, the South African pop star, Tyla, stepped out in an Alexander Wang. It was not her first time co-signing the designer, and she is not the only African star with an affinity for him. Our Grammy-nominated Rema once sang, “Early morn’, Early mo-morning, I dey bomb, I dey cash out on a norm’, I give all glory to God. I dey on soft, rocking Alexander Wang.”
No doubt the name “Wang” is an easy rhyme, as another infamous man, Kanye West, famously said, “Everybody playin’, spendin’ everything on Alexander Wan’.” But Wang is on an apology tour. In late 2020, multiple male and transgender models accused him of sexual assault, physical harassment, and drugging individuals at nightclubs.
According to The Guardian, Wang initially denied all claims, calling them “baseless and grotesquely false” fabrications spread by anonymous sources. Following several accusers’ decision to seek legal counsel, the designer held a series of closed-door meetings with his detractors in early 2021. In the aftermath, he released a public admission of the distress he had inflicted, pledging a commitment to personal growth, even while highlighting that certain specifics regarding the encounters remained a point of contention.
Wang is one of many designers to breeze off extreme backlash. Dana Thomas, author of Gods and Kings: The Rise and Fall of Alexander McQueen and John Galliano, summarises it best: “Coco Chanel was a virulent antisemite, but that didn’t stop the Met from mounting a major CHANEL exhibition in 2005 that attracted more than 460,000 visitors. Dolce & Gabbana was briefly ostracised in the late 2010s following a series of racist ads and homophobic and fat-phobic statements; today, the incidents have been largely forgotten, and the brand is widely beloved. Balenciaga faced opprobrium in 2022 for ads featuring inappropriate sexual imagery of children, but within a matter of months the incident had blown over.
With an estimation of less than 50,000 people, the Jewish community in Nigeria is fighting more for validation than ostracisation. So it’s inconceivable for a designer to be cancelled for the same reasons as Galliano and Coco Chanel. When it comes to other sins, well, there’s absolutely nothing you can do as a man that cannot be forgiven, as long as it is not another man.
Who gets backlash in Nigeria?
Temi Otedola for the third digital cover of A Nasty Boy via @anastyboy on Instagram It was 2019, and my friend had just convinced me to attend a new festival called Homecoming with her. The experience was surreal; despite the rains, the cool kids of Lagos turned out for every day of the music-fashion-sports festival. Everyone dressed to the nines, which meant a lot of barely-there clothing. The sunshades were extravagant because no one really wore them for functional purposes. The Odunsi and Cruel Santino covers for Native Magazine were the number one thing on everyone’s wishlist. As supermodel Paloma Elsesser, who was also at the event that year, put it, “You never forget your first time in Lagos.”
Honestly, the only word to describe the 2010s is unforgettable. From the creation of Lagos Fashion Week in 2011 to the youthquake of the late 2010s, fashion in Nigeria was moving at a phenomenal speed, and the international community was paying attention.
The fertile ground gave rise to several publications and brands, but none shook the ground like the birth of A Nasty Boy. In February 2017, founded by lawyer and journalist Richard Akuson, A Nasty Boy launched as Nigeria’s first LGBTQ magazine. Its pages challenged traditional ideas of African masculinity and gender norms through fashion, essays, and visual stories. It was featured in other publications such as CNN and Dazed. Additionally, Temi Otedola was the cover star for its third digital issue.
Despite its impact, its moment was short-lived. Its Instagram page remains, but its time was abruptly cut short when the founder, Akuson, was violently kitoed — the use of online dating apps and social media to lure, entrap, and assault members of the LGBTQ+ community. In fear for his life, he fled the nation and, in April 2019, penned an essay for The New York Times about the reality of being openly gay and running a magazine in Nigeria. “I dared to start a queer publication in Nigeria and was disowned by my country as a gay man, writer and activist.”
Speaking to renowned journalist Vincent Desmond, who, fun fact, used to be an editor for A Nasty Boy, he expresses, “A Nasty Boy was truly untraditional, in model, in content, in roll out and in success.”
He is right. A Nasty Boy stuck its head out to be the first in the media and was brutally decapitated. In fashion design, several designers have had to deal with different versions of prejudice. Subversive designers who reinterpret gender stereotypes through garments often have similar issues.
Read also: Sex Confessions: Discovering what it means to be asexual and realising I wasn’t broken
Subversion is no stranger to shunning, but Nigeria is different
Olamide Chiedoziem Mercy wearing Cute Saint via @cutesaint.ng on Instagram Gen Z loves the phrase “The best man is a woman”, which means that when people look for men with “good” qualities, they often refer to actions that are expected of women — nurturing, friendly, polite, and open to compromise. The same can be said about today’s fashion, as a stylish man is not shy about playing with silhouettes and form in the way that is associated with women.
But there’s also a bias against designers who explore gender identity. In 2024, Bolaji Akinwande wrote for CNN about Nigerian fashion labels feeling forced to show in private due to their embrace of LGBTQ+. He highlights that this goes beyond publications’ refusal to report that Fola Francis, who tragically drowned in December 2023, made history at the 2022 Lagos Fashion Week as the first trans model to walk the runway.
He traces the newfound aggressive homophobia in fashion to a domino effect of Nigeria adopting the SSMPA law (Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act) in 2014. The SSMPA law bans gay marriage, same-sex relationships and membership of gay rights groups, with punishments including a prison term of up to 14 years for those convicted.
“Indeed, amid what’s perceived as a growing pressure for organisers to adhere to anti-gay laws and increasingly divisive politics around gender, sexuality and inclusivity in Nigeria, an increasing number of fashion labels have chosen to show “off-schedule” via “underground” private presentations…,” Akinwande writes.
He lists brands like Tzar Studios, Weiz Dhurm Franklyn, and Udiahgebi, as their provocative approach to menswear has garnered a few glares. On the topic of his piece in CNN, Akinwande tells me, “I think one thing the SSMPA law did and still does is to sort of create fear in people; it’s like a yardstick against queerness and everything unconventional. Here, people who are gender-nonconforming or simply not conventional face discrimination.”
But some controversial designers beat the odds
Meagan Good and Jonathan Majors in Orange Culture for Rolling Stones Africa via @orangecultureng on Instagram However, it is not uncommon to see men sporting crop tops, heels, and dresses at fashion shows in Lagos. Many have also been met with success, not just survival. Orange Culture, a gender-fluid label, launched in 2010 and was one of the brands showcased at Lagos Fashion Week in 2011.
The brand was not met without backlash, as Adebayo Oke-Lawal, its designer, told i-D magazine, “I was getting death threats — people were telling me that what I was creating was demonic.” He expressed that he created the brand because, in response to his experience attending an all-boys school in Nigeria, “he had grown frustrated with the hyper-masculinity and prescribed identities surrounding him.”
The biases concerning his brand never left, but in 2014, Orange Culture became the first African label to be shortlisted as a finalist for the LVMH Prize. This launched the brand into the international spotlight. Moreover, Orange Culture secured popular stockists, including Browns and Farfetch, and has showcased collections in Paris, London, New York and at Pitti Uomo in Florence.
This translated into a subtle message to other designers — the land is coarse, but germination is not impossible. Today, brands such as Fruche, Cute Saint and Oshobor are unafraid to explore gender identity through clothing. The prejudice may still exist, but so does the appetite for fashion that challenges conventional ideas of gender.
Is there a safe space for our society to revisit controversial designers with newer perspectives?
Vincent Desmond doesn’t think our society is ready for another A Nasty Boy. He explains, “From where I stand, there was a time when liberalism felt morally good. Showing more skin was encouraged [for example, I don’t think things like ‘TL sleep’ or even the ‘silhouette challenge’ can happen on today’s internet and get little to no pushback as those did, but that’s a bit separate].”
“There was something revolutionary about sexiness, and it was positioned as a good thing, and that meant the kind of risqué photos that A Nasty Boy put out were controversial, but they still had a home and a place in the zeitgeist. They were a sexy moral compass that promised you a morally beautiful future where we would all be free,” Desmond says.
A similar sentiment is shared by Bolaji Akinwande: “No, I don’t think Nigerian society is getting more open-minded; however, I think people are creating art that challenges conformity either way. It’s either you take it or leave it.”
He highlights that the problem is not just the law, but the people, saying, “Hope without actively unlearning bigotry is just “hope” to me, and looking back on how queerness is often portrayed or even how queer people are treated, I’m of mixed feelings when it comes to hope.”
On a final note
Ultimately, the global fashion landscape reveals a stark dissonance: the same industry capable of separating creative genius from personal transgression when it comes to figures like Galliano continues to leave little room for Nigerian creatives whose work challenges deeply held ideas about gender, sexuality and identity.
Progress in the Nigerian context remains painstakingly slow, and the societal climate remains fraught, but the endurance of these boundary-pushing artists offers optimism. Art may not have the immediate power to erase bigotry, but through its refusal to conform, it continues to carve out vital spaces for dialogue and identity.
Read more: The vision behind Florence “Cuppy” Otedola’s cover wardrobe
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