Lagos Space Programme is a conceptual design practice; We offer intellectual, ready-to-wear high-end crafted collections while exploring parallel concepts through multidisciplinary collaboration projects.The name of the project reflects our ethos/manifesto; a name [Lagos Space Programme] grounded in our roots but still looking outwards. A lot of our work exists within the notion of speculative futures—critically thinking about what futuristic African fashion means. It’s also important we really contribute to the global conversation around gender from an indigenous perspective in a well-researched manner. There are these wrong misconceptions and we believe fashion really has the ability to shift cultural prejudices.
Founded in 2018, our projects aim to explore African futures through a lens informed by slow fashion and by dissecting the intersection of Thompson’s life experiences, thereby communicating ideas of individuality, and proposing new ways to understand beauty by collaborating with indigenous artisans such as Bronze casters from the ancient city of Benin to women Adire dyers from Osogbo. Thompson aims to continue centuries-old conversations around design practices— Knowledge transfer and acknowledgment of cultural and traditional techniques reinterpreted in a modern context are at the core of the project’s ethos as well as sustainability, reducing inequalities amongst communities, fair pay, local sourcing, responsible production and consumption.
it’s very important that through our practice we deconstruct misconceptions about contemporary African life, especially around notions of gender and queerness. There’s a common misconception that these are western constructs and by exploring design through a cultural lens we aim to educate and highlight Africa’s progressive past pre-colonization. Additionally, our exploration of fabric development via our Post-Adire organic indigo-dyed pieces allows us to contribute to the ongoing conversations around fashion’s problematic role in the climate emergency and how sustainability needn’t mean a compromise on aesthetic desirability.
