Lagos Fashion Week Opens Applications for Green Access 2026

Green Access, Lagos Fashion Week’s flagship designer development programme, returns for its 2026 edition with a renewed call to emerging African designers to rethink the role of craft in shaping the future of fashion.

Following the launch of The Blueprint for a Regenerative Fashion Future Manifesto (The Manifesto), Green Access 2026 reinforces Lagos Fashion Week’s commitment to turning industry ambition into action.

While The Manifesto outlines a shared framework for a more circular, resilient and responsible global fashion industry, Green Access complements that work by ensuring emerging designers are supported as they build with the principles, knowledge, and practices that will enable continuity across generations.

Since its launch in 2018, Green Access has become a cornerstone of Lagos Fashion Week’s commitment to advancing the circular economy in Africa. Created to spotlight and nurture designers embracing environmentally and socially responsible practices, the programme has supported a growing community of designers whose work continues to shape conversations around craftsmanship, contemporary African fashion and the circular fashion economy. Alumni, including Ajanée, Cute Saint, Eso By Liman Desiree Iyama, Garbe, Kadiju, Oshobor, Pepperrow, Pettre Taylor, and Y’wande, to name a few, have gone on to build distinctive brands recognised for their creativity, craftsmanship and forward-thinking approach to fashion.

This year’s theme, Crafted in Practice: Reimagining Craft for a Circular Future, challenges participants to rethink craftsmanship not simply as heritage to preserve, but as a practical solution for the future of African fashion. Through collaboration with artisans, local manufacturers and textile producers, participants will investigate how indigenous…