Hertunba at Lagos Fashion Week 2025: A Celebration of Womanhood, Craft, and Conscious Elegance

On the runway at Lagos Fashion Week 2025, Hertunba delivered a show that felt like a deep breath—slow, intentional, grounded, and powerful. The collection unfolded as a visual poem, expressing the brand’s core ethos: fashion that uplifts the spirit, honours the earth, and celebrates the strength and softness of the modern African woman.

Founded by designer Florentina Agu, Hertunba has always been more than clothes, it’s storytelling through fabric. Agu’s journey into fashion began at 13, long before the brand’s official launch in 2020. A fascination with how garments transform not just the silhouette, but the soul, led her into dressmaking classes, and later, while leading her university faculty, she discovered firsthand how confidence is ignited through the perfect outfit. What began as a personal awakening evolved into Hertunba, a sustainable luxury brand rooted in empowerment, growth, and elegant self-expression.

At its core, the name Hertunba merges Her with the Yoruba honorific Otunba: a woman of distinction, confidence, and influence. And that essence was unmistakable on the runway.

This season’s collection embraced structure and movement with equal devotion, where layered ruffles, gathered cotton, sculptural bodices, and asymmetric skirts created a harmonious balance between softness and strength, the unmistakable signature of the Hertunba woman.

Colour played a central role in shaping the mood and storytelling of the runway: deep cobalt blues evoked depth and fluidity, while soft creams and crisp whites offered a sense of lightness and calm; midnight black grounded the palette with quiet sophistication. Black and navy striped textiles added rhythm and visual cadence, the occasional earthy green recalled nature’s steadiness, and delicate accents of pink brought a subtle warmth and romance. These hues weren’t simply aesthetic choices, but symbols… echoing water, land, heritage, renewal, and the interconnectedness of womanhood and environment.

Notable details throughout the collection revealed Hertunba’s mastery of balancing structure and movement. Ruffled tiered skirts paired with strapless tops created a soft, wave-like sway that felt effortless with each step, while sculpted bodices framed the torso with precision, celebrating posture and form. Striped draped skirts introduced unexpected volume and angular flow, offering a sense of motion even in stillness, and ruffled column gowns brought a cloud-like softness, transforming texture into poetry. Completing the narrative were two-piece sets featuring tied bandeau tops and structured wrap skirts, looks that felt both relaxed and refined, embodying the ease and confidence of the Hertunba woman.

One standout look featured a white fitted silhouette dress with black and blue patterned breast cups, accented by a bold triangle at the sternum and a mouth design in the middle of the waist, a design that created a playful, face-like motif on the bodice. It was Avant-garde, a little surreal, yet deeply rooted in traditional form, an example of Hertunba’s ability to blend storytelling with technical craftsmanship.

This was modern Lagos style—confident, tactile, rhythmic, and visually layered. Each look echoed the vibrancy and nuance of Nigerian aesthetics, without resorting to cliché.

Hertunba’s commitment to sustainability and community remains integral to its identity. The brand repurposes the majority of its textile offcuts into new accessories and décor, reducing waste while extending the life of each fabric story. Behind every piece is a network of local artisans who are trained, fairly supported, and empowered to grow their craft. A portion of the brand’s profits also goes toward educational initiatives for women, ensuring that Hertunba’s impact extends beyond the runway and into everyday lives.

Hertunba’s Lagos Fashion Week showcase was not flashy or loud; it was assured, articulate, and deeply attuned to its own rhythm. The collection unfolded with the quiet confidence of a woman who does not need to announce her presence, she simply occupies the room. Every silhouette felt intentional: bodices sculpted with purpose, skirts that released into movement, textiles that spoke in colour and contrast. There was a sense of closeness to the body, not restrictive, but celebratory, affirming shape, stance, and skin. The garments didn’t overwhelm; they illuminated.

What resonated most was the collection’s emotional clarity. It honored craftsmanship without overworking it, sustainability without preaching it, and femininity without simplifying it. Hertunba’s vision of luxury lies in consideration, the choice of a curve here, a gather there, the precise placement of a stripe or a ruffle to guide the eye and shape a feeling. It is clothing designed to be lived in, remembered in, transformed in.

This is luxury the Hertunba way: intentional, thoughtful, empowered, rooted in both heritage and evolution. The Hertunba woman does not dress to impress; she dresses to express, to take up space with grace, to move boldly, and to exist in her fullness. On the Lagos Fashion Week runway, she did exactly that, quietly commanding, beautifully assured, undeniably seen.