Queen Aderonke Ademiluyi-Ogunwusi Heritage Meets Fashion

Queen Aderonke Ademiluyi-Ogunwusi has always known that the power of fashion extends beyond what we wear. Through her platform, Africa Fashion Week London, she has spent over a decade positioning African fashion as a powerful driver of trade, education, cultural diplomacy, and economic growth. Vanessa Obioha writes

It is no secret that Queen Aderonke Ademiluyi-Ogunwusi’s life revolves around fashion. Whether at a conference or the runway, the founder of Africa Fashion Week London (AFWL) and Africa Fashion Week Nigeria (AFWN) always radiates everything fashion. Specifically African fashion.

Born into a family of lawyers, she seemed destined for the courtroom. Instead, she found another kind of advocacy in fashion.

“I come from a family of lawyers. My late father was a lawyer; my mum’s older sister is a retired judge.  I studied law because I believed in advocacy, in protecting people. But I realised I could practice law in a different court — the court of culture and creativity,” she said in a recent encounter.

“Fashion is also advocacy. We advocate for our artisans, our weavers, our young designers, for jobs, for exports, for identity. So I didn’t leave the law behind. I just put on a different robe. The robe of a cultural ambassador.”

Her love for fashion stemmed from growing up in Nigeria. As a princess of the royal Ile-Ife (her great-grandfather was the late Ooni Ajagun Ademiluyi, the 48th King of the Ile-Ife Kingdom), she grew up surrounded by fabrics such as aso oke and adire, and was captivated by the stories woven into them.

“I watched seamstresses turn clothes into identity. For us, fashion was never just what you wore. It was language. It was history. It was pride,” she said with a great sense of pride. “This was what inspired me because as a Princess Royal of Ile Ife, I was born into a culture that wears its heritage, and I saw how powerful our textiles were — yet how invisible they were on the global stage. I knew one day I had to change that.”

The day finally came in 2011 when she founded Africa Fashion Week London. At the time, African fashion was often viewed through a narrow lens, confined largely to traditional attire rather than recognised as a sophisticated, commercially viable industry. AFWL set out to change that, positioning African designers not as participants in a niche event but as the main attraction on a global runway.

More than that, she also wanted to dismantle three persistent misconceptions: that African fashion is monolithic, that it belongs only on the continent, and that it lacks a sustainable business model.

“Africa is 54 countries, so our creativity is diverse. Our designers deserve visibility in London, Paris, New York and the rest of the world. African fashion is an industry. It creates jobs, drives tourism and tells stories that the world wants to buy.”

Fifteen years later, AFWL has become one of the continent’s most influential fashion platforms. It has showcased more than 1,000 designers, forged partnerships with international brands and institutions, and helped reposition fashion as a catalyst for trade, education, cultural diplomacy and economic growth.

“We’ve represented more than 30 African countries, including Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Kenya, Senegal, Ethiopia, and many more — plus designers from the UK, US, and Caribbean who are celebrating African heritage. It’s truly pan-African,” she said.

Education has become one of the platform’s defining pillars. Through collaborations with organisations such as the British Council and universities across the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States, AFWL equips emerging designers with the business, technical and digital skills needed to compete internationally.

“Creativity is our strength, but talent alone is no longer enough. Designers also need business knowledge, technical expertise, digital skills, sustainability awareness and access to international networks.”

This year’s 16th edition is scheduled for August 17–23, 2026, in Central London and will feature designers such as Kente Uncut, Add an Apron, Maehem by Reverse Psychology London, among others.

But it was not easy from the beginning. The queen admitted that not a few doubted she would succeed. Back then she was inundated with questions like “Will people attend?”

“15 years later, we are still here.”

Patience and persistence, she said, remain her biggest lessons.

“I learnt that you have to be the one to open the door, and then hold it open for others. AFWL is one of the pioneers of Africa Fashion Weeks. Based on its success, almost every city in the world has an Africa Fashion Week.”

Her legacy for the two brands AFWL and AFWN is to prove that African designers are global, commercially viable, and deserve investment, stockists, press and everything that can make them financially sustainable.

Nowadays, what excites her most about Nigerian fashion is a collage of many things such as creativity, storytelling and popularity. But most importantly, confidence.

“The creativity has always been there. The stories have always been rich. What excites me now is that Nigerian designers are no longer asking for a seat at the table. They are building their own tables,” she said. “They’re fusing heritage with innovation. They’re telling Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa stories in silhouettes that speak to London, New York and its diaspora. And the world is listening. That popularity is not accidental. It’s earned.”

She is equally passionate about correcting misconceptions surrounding African fashion, particularly the assumption that it is limited to a handful of fabrics.

“People still think that our fashion is all about adire,  aso oke,  akwete or kente. No. We have silk, raffia, leather, and centuries of textile techniques.”

Or that sustainability is a recent concept.

“Actually, our industry is one of the most sustainable in the world. Our artisans make in small batches. We upcycle. We use natural dyes. We’ve been sustainable before it was a buzzword.”

Again, she wants people to understand that African fashion is not meant for Africans only.

“Fashion is universal. A good cut, a good story, transcends race. Our goal is for African fashion to be worn because it’s beautiful, not just because it’s African. We are not waiting to be validated. We are here. We are luxury. We are now.”

Balancing work and family can be demanding, but not for the Olori. Marrying the Ooni has only deepened her sense of purpose.

“Before, I was promoting African fashion as a brand. Now, I promote it as a responsibility. As Olori, and with His Imperial Majesty, the Ooni of Ife, who is deeply passionate about culture and the custodian of our culture, I see fashion as custodianship.”

The palace, she said, reminds her daily that our fabrics, our beads, our crowns are not trends.

“They are sacred. So my vision has shifted from just ‘showcasing’ to ‘preserving and evolving.’ How do we make sure the next generation knows what adire means, but also sees it on a global runway? That’s the work now.”