Between Lagos and Berlin: Orange Culture on the move

Adebayo Oke-Lawal will show his collection for the third time at the upcoming Berlin Fashion Week in July. For him, fashion didn’t start with the idea of ​​building a brand. It started much earlier, with observation – he saw how the people around him expressed themselves through clothing, but also how much was hidden underneath. Growing up in Nigeria, he became aware at an early age of the silence that surrounded softness, vulnerability and emotion, particularly around masculinity. Clothing became a way to speak into this silence.

Not loudly, but honestly.

“I was never interested in designing clothes just for the sake of beauty or trend,” says Adebayo Oke-Lawal. “I wanted to create pieces that explore humanity, identity, vulnerability and the complexity of what it means to be African. Beyond generalizations.”

Founded in Lagos in 2011, Orange Culture has become one of the most emotive voices in contemporary African fashion. This is not because the brand is trying to dominate space, but because it knows how to hold it.

There is always a certain lightness when talking to him. Nothing seems overly constructed. Even when he talks about systems, production or industry structures, there is always a human undertone. Maybe that’s what makes his work have such an impact on people.

Waridi Wardah is a Berlin-based creative strategist, author and mentor who works at the intersection of African fashion, culture and global design. She heads the Fashion Office FA254, which connects African designers with European markets. Since 2015, she has also been a partner and board advisor to the Hub of Africa Fashion Week in Addis Ababa.

In its native Nigeria, Orange Culture engages in discourse around identity, emotional visibility and masculinity. Across the continent, the brand is part of a broader generation of designers who are redefining what African fashion can be when unfiltered by expectations. Outside Africa, she continues to enter global discourses that have yet to learn to read African design with depth rather than conjecture.

But none of this happened quickly.

The brand grew through experimentation, community, mistakes and time. Today she works with a close network of artisans, pattern makers, stylists and production teams, based primarily in Lagos. The process remains intimate and practical, rather than relying on collaboration that becomes performance.

Everything is consciously designed and produced in Lagos.

“Nigeria has incredible craftsmanship, talent, textile knowledge and creative energy,” he says. “I always wanted Orange Culture to contribute to this area.”

Lagos completely permeates the work – not just visually but also emotionally.

The city moves with an intensity that’s hard to explain if you’ve never lived in it. It’s loud, beautiful, exhausting, chaotic and resilient – sometimes all in the same hour. This rhythm carries over into the clothing: in movement, in layering, in softness versus structure, and in fabrics that drape gently over sculpted silhouettes.

Nothing seems flat. Color conveys emotions rather than just being decoration. Delicate pink refuses simplicity. Orange radiates warmth without being intrusive. Contrasting tones create tension that lasts rather than dissipates. Even contradictions are held gently without needing to be clarified.

“I want people to feel seen in the clothes rather than just being styled by them,” he says.

In Lagos, this language is often understood instinctively. Emotional codes already exist in everyday life – gentleness and survival coexist, expression and restraint stand side by side without conflict.

Outside Nigeria, the perception is shifting.

In cities like London and Berlin, the first point of entry is often emotional. It’s about the openness, the vulnerability and the way masculinity is questioned through material and form. However, underneath lie cultural layers that are rooted in lived experience and take longer to develop. He doesn’t rush this process.

“The core remains the same,” he says. “What is changing is the way we open the door to this world for people.”

If Lagos is instinct, London is structure.

In London, Orange Culture moves more directly through the fashion systems – showrooms, buyers, press, retail calendars and the machinery of visibility. It’s less about discovery and more about navigation.

“London is about structure,” he says. “It gives a clearer framework for how things work. It’s about understanding systems and recognizing how relationships influence growth.”

But building from Lagos means working without complete infrastructure. Production, logistics, financing, access – much of this needs to be solved in real time. Nothing is guaranteed.

“There is constant resistance,” he says. “But there is also strength in the way people are adapting and continuing to build despite the restrictions.”

Orange Culture today moves between ready-to-wear and made-to-measure pieces. The garments are often refined by handwork, beading and weaving. Nothing seems rushed. You can feel the human hand in every phase.

Over time, Oke-Lawal has become more aware of what goes into the process.

“I learned to say no when things don’t fit together, even if they look good at first glance,” he says.

I first met Adebayo during initial discussions about collaborating. I later invited him to speak at a panel during Frankfurt Fashion Week 2021, the virtual edition organized by Fashion Council Germany. What stuck with me was not just what he said, but how he spoke: considered, grounded, and always returning to feeling rather than theory.

Since then, Orange Culture has returned to Germany, more specifically to Berlin Fashion Week. This season the brand is presenting itself in the city for the third time.

Berlin offers him something specific: not perfection, but freedom.

“Berlin feels like a city that allows for emotional honesty,” he says. “There is less pressure for perfection. It allows for process, experimentation, even discomfort.”

This openness reflects his own creative rhythm. Ideas arise long before they become clothes – in memories, conversations, grief, music or emotions that have not yet taken shape. He stays closely involved from the concept to the final presentation to ensure that the emotional thread is not lost.

In addition to the collections, the ‘Orange Mentorship’ has quietly emerged within the brand. It offers young creatives in Nigeria access to studio processes, conversations and insights into how fashion actually works beyond aesthetics.

“What I’m trying to convey is that fashion is more than just clothes,” he says. “I promote emotional honesty, discipline, storytelling, collaboration and sustainable thinking.”

And perhaps that is what remains most memorable after a conversation with him. Not just the work itself, but the care that goes into it.

Beyond seasons and collections, there is a quieter aspiration.

“I’m still striving to build something sustainable and meaningful,” he says. “To create a space where the brand can exist entirely on its own terms, while opening doors for others who come from similar backgrounds.”