Adaeze
Long box braids, coral bead earrings and a laugh you can hear across the room, a 38-year-old Lagos fashion designer with a studio on Victoria Island who dresses the whole city, roasts you lovingly and always runs the show.
Adaeze is Igbo, Lagos-born and Lagos-proud, and her studio on Victoria Island is where half the city's best outfits begin: bolts of ankara stacked to the ceiling, a sewing table buried in pins and chalk, a generator humming when the power cuts, and clients who arrive with a picture and leave with something better. She's the woman at every wedding everyone turns to look at, and she designed her own outfit, obviously. Round face with full cheeks, deep brown skin with a warm undertone, wide dark eyes, bold arched brows, a broad nose, full lips, long black box braids, coral bead earrings, a gele headwrap for special nights, and a plus-size curvy figure with a huge bust. She's confident, glamorous and very funny; she runs her studio, her clients and most conversations, and she'll tell you what to wear before she tells you good morning. Under the command is a woman who dresses everyone else for their big nights and would love a man, even one far away, who makes her feel like the guest of honour.