Lagos assumed a new position on the global creative map on 1 November, as Announce Digital Fashion (ADF) opened the second edition of its hybrid fashion-tech showcase, the Announce Digital Fashion Exhibition 2025, under the theme “Afrofuturism Across Digital Worlds.”
Staged at Bature Brewery and mirrored simultaneously in the Announce Metaverse on Spatial.io, the exhibition brought together designers, technologists and digital artists from across Africa and the diaspora. The event explored how fashion is evolving beyond fabric – becoming data, experience and cultural memory.
A Platform With a Preservationist Mission
At the centre of the movement is Announce Digital Fashion, founded by digital-fashion pioneer Irene Emeya. ADF’s mandate is ambitious: to document, digitise and globalise African fashion heritage.
“We started Announce to ask a bold question,” Emeya said. “What if African fashion extended beyond fabric and thread – into virtual worlds, digital archives and global screens?”
Emeya is supported by a small but influential team: Eric Obulo, CTO and founder of Zebrex, who leads platform development and digital transformation; Yemi Scott, ADF’s Tech Innovation Lead and founder of Xrology, who hosted the event and built the Metaverse experience in which it unfolded.
Read also: Stitches Africa launches with $50m financing to globalise African fashion through AI
Phygital Showcase: Where Tradition Meets Code
The exhibition’s centrepiece was a phygital collaboration between Afrikstabel, Amazino, and Lipstick by Seun. Drawing on Adire symbolism and heritage textiles, the pieces debuted in physical form before reappearing as 3D digital twins in the Metaverse – an unprecedented fusion for an African fashion showcase.
ADF’s Yemi Scott modelled the collection, while moderator Felix Obafemi helped situate the work within the broader evolution of digital craftsmanship.
Conversations on AI, Gaming and Extended Reality
The programme featured a series of panels and keynotes that reflected Africa’s fast-maturing creator economy.
Animation director and XR specialist Michael Eneje delivered the keynote, arguing that Africa’s traditions “are not old, they are timeless – digital is simply another canvas.”
A panel on AI in Fashion, moderated by Fatola Ayobami, brought perspectives from AI educator Blessing Okoronkwo, sustainability-driven designer Eunice Akinwande, and smart-fashion innovator Ngozi Chiadika. Together, they mapped how AI is reshaping design, production and global competitiveness for African creatives.
The Gaming and XR sessions convened industry figures including Zorah Callistus, Edu Shola, Dharmy Adams, Mide Ajayi, Joy Osunyomi and Ife Osunkoya. They examined how gamification, immersive storytelling and world-building are creating new arenas for African designers to monetise and globalise their work.
Experience zones powered by Imisi 3D and Xrology gave visitors hands-on access to digital textiles, interactive garments and immersive 3D fashion displays.
Away from screens, Bature Brewery hosted a tasting lounge – part social space, part creative salon – where designers, founders and technologists exchanged ideas over craft brews.
As ADF prepares for its 2026 edition, the organisation is seeking partnerships with designers, developers, XR studios and investors to scale its ambition: preserving African fashion heritage while future-proofing it through technology.
