Nigeria may not be the first country you automatically associate with high-fashion. Dan Pinch on fashion.psfk points to one lady who’s changing the way we look at African fashion: Deola Sagoe.

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Nigeria, if you haven’t visited recently, may not be the first country you automatically associate with high-fashion. What you’ve been missing by taking your holidays in Ibiza, rather than sunny Lagos, is that it is one of Africa’s fastest growing economies and cultural hotspots. One lady who is likely to convince any remaining doubters is top Nigerian designer, Deola Sagoe. Her designs contain subtle nostalgic influences from her home country such as hand woven fabrics, beads, cowries and shells but combined with high-fashion silhouettes that have a modern hipster edge.

Deola captures in her work all the optimism, joy for life and colour of Africa that often gets left behind by CNN coverage of the continent. International fashionistas that have been paying attention may have spotted her award winning work in the past at New York Fashion Week, where she was invited as a special guest. Deola will be showing her Spring/Summer 2006 collection at Nokia Cape Town Fashion Week on July 13th.