In an industry that thrives on expression, only a select few designers are known to wear their hearts on their sleeves. With collections like ‘Fractured’, ‘Onojade’ and ‘A Graduation of Love’, the four-year-old brand, Oshobor is known to weave emotions, stories and strong opinions into a captivating style. It is only right he is featured in this weeks session of Discovery.
Peter Odion Oshobor, the Creative Director of Oshobor is a Nigerian fashion designer from Edo State, who grew up in Ejigbo, Lagos, where he got his primary and secondary education. Peter’s fashion experience was born at home where he would mend damaged fabric, saving his parents money for repair. He was also actively involved in crochet in secondary school. As promising as a career in fashion looked for Peter, his excessively sweaty palms posed a challenge that left him skeptical.
Through his tertiary education at The University of Benin, Edo State, he ran a modelling agency called ‘House of Dawn’. This agency thrived until Peter finally decided to pursue his passion. On November 1st 2020, Oshobor was launched.
From ‘Kokoroko’ to ‘Motunrayo’, Oshobor has offered a total of eight collections. His second collection, ‘Fractured’ was born from Peter’s depression when he lost his only employee at the time. Almost all the outfits were entirely hand-woven.
It did not take long for this designer to get noticed, as his brand was included in Lagos Fashion Week just two years after launch. This was where he earned the nickname, “The Masquerade Designer.” Since then, he has also showcased his collections on the famed New York Fashion Week, as well as private shows around the world.
One of his most emotionally captivating collections ‘A Graduation of Love’, took us on a journey of love expressed with colours – black, through the colours of the rainbow, and ending in white. In an interview with Weird Man Films, Peter Oshobor stated:
“To me, I would say love graduates from a place of ignorance to a place of acceptance, a place of bliss”
His latest collection, ‘Motunrayo’ artistically utilises sustainable materials to display traditional elegance in his heritage. The entire collection consists of twelve jaw-dropping outfits, each unique in its design, taking us on yet another beautiful journey of culture imbued with sustainable grandeur. This collection was also recently showcased on the 2024 edition of Lagos Fashion Week.
His favoured use of environmentally friendly materials sets him apart as a good example of how possible it is to protect our ecosystem, while still achieving elegance in design.
With a growing audience, and a reservoir of intriguing stories, Peter Oshobor continues to prove that he has what it takes to keep him on the big screen, and us at the edge of our seats.
