“I don’t think anyone has ever done this before!” So said Tokyo James, calling in after a whirlwind fashion month to touch base on his fall 2025 collection, which he presented on March 3 on the Milan Fashion Week schedule with a show in Lagos, Nigeria.
You read that right. James, who was born and raised in London but is of Nigerian descent, took his show to Lagos to celebrate the 10th anniversary of his eponymous label. The Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana let him keep his time slot but present his show via livestream from Nigeria—pretty cool. “I’m very grateful they understood how important it was to us,” said James. While the advent of social media has encouraged fashion to think global, the pandemic inspired many independent designers like James to think locally. This happening makes a solid case for doing both.
The 10th anniversary didn’t send James on a nostalgia trip, to his credit. Rather, he said, it gave him more confidence to keep going. “I always had impostor syndrome in the industry, but being able to keep it going for 10 years and doing it my way has been exciting for me,” he said. Newfound stability encouraged James to hone in on what his customers have been receptive to—tailoring, leather, outerwear—and explore new territory. “Tokyo James is entering its fairytale princess era,” the designer joked, underscoring the broader range of dresses he’s designed for fall. The standout is a sheer, lacy black frock with sequins and floral appliqués, sexy and romantic at the same time.
James said he’s also embracing a recently discovered love of black. “Black is just… forever, eternal,” he said. His typically eclectic combinations of textures and materials certainly felt sophisticated in monochromatic black, and the leather work, particularly the menswear tailoring, added an edge that counterbalanced the romance of his dresses. “People think it’s easy to design in black, but they don’t understand that it’s actually more challenging because you have to think about how to make it fresh constantly,” James said. The other thing about black is that it underscores the fit and make of clothes more than any other hue. James should keep using the color to expand his skill set as he moves into his second decade.
Looking into the future, James said he and his team are building the brand’s headquarters in Lagos, and investigating showing in London, “because London is home,” or, possibly, in Paris, “because Paris is Paris!” Designers like James are giving “global” a whole new definition by approaching it locally—one city at a time.