Nigerian graduation dresses that have wow for us teens

“I felt like a princess,” says American teenager Brian Led about her graduation robe, which she specifically ordered from Nigeria.

“I wanted my dress to stop people in their footsteps.”

A 18-year-old Florida guy, who has Haitian and Dominican roots, wore black clothing made of shiny and beads, lace fabric that is commonly used in traditional Yoruba designs for events where people want to wear appropriate clothes.

“I didn’t just want dresses,” BBC says.

“I wanted me to wear a story – what he said, ‘This is me, and this is where my roots go.”

Payments at the US School is the rite of passage-idealized in countless age films-this is an opportunity to make an application for identity and fashion.

The event is more than a party, it is a spectacle: part of the red track; The Social Milestone section and for many young women is a powerful moment of self -expression.

But if Brian has made a point of herself In her African graduation dress, she did not expect her reaction she had become viral and her post now has more than 1.1 million views.

This reflects the growth of interest that has caused the demand for custom outfits with bold designs and unique jewelry.

What has begun as a tendency of Tiktak and Instagram – with people like Brian, which exposes to clothing, has led to a prosperous business that binds fashion designers with youth outside the continent.

The average price of the graduation dress in Africa is from 600 to $ 1000 (£ 440 to 740 pounds), depending on the complexity of the design, the choice of fabric and additional parts. User luxury works can exceed $ 1,500.

This may seem expensive, but much cheaper than having a clothing made in the US – where the cost starts about $ 3,500 and can go much higher depending on the designer and materials.

The BBC talked to five fashion designers in Nigeria and Ghana, who generally fulfilled more than 2,800 orders for graduation dresses in the 2025 season, most of them appealed to the United States.

Designer Shakirate original and her team based in the southwestern Nigerian city of Ibadan are responsible for 1500 of them.

She cut out a niche for herself, although her country is not a popular graduation tradition.

“Ninety-eight percent of the dresses we created went to the United States. We worked in changes only to fulfill the terms,” ​​says Ms. Origbab.

Her business, the Keerah fashion cave, works 60 full -time employees and at least 130 contract staff were brought into peak.

In 2019, when she had the first major prom, she had 50 dresses. By 2024, the orders passed 500, and this year this figure passed.

Despite the fact that for the co-workers, the post-straight can be a chance to warm up in the afterword of June, those who force them returned to work.

Each July, the team of tailors Ms. original begins to prepare until next year: the corset base is cut; Silhouettes are tainted; Fabrics are obtained.

“It’s no longer a seasonal – it’s the whole cycle. The action consumes everything,” she says excitedly.

Business also started engaged in designer Victoria Ani and her workshops in UO, southeastern Nigeria. She says she put more than 200 coats in New York, New Jersey and California.

It started enrolled in this market in 2022 and now has eight teams. One robe takes three days, depending on the design, she says.

Ms. Ani believes that the choice of the African designer is a cultural statement.

“They say there is such an honor when they can say, ‘My dress came from Nigeria,” she says.

Popular styles include corset letters, high cracks, rented trains, removable capes and beads. Some are inspired by the Met Gala Tames, the Yoruba wedding views, or the Afrafourist aesthetics.

“We receive requests such as” Queen Coachella Queen “or” Cinderella, “but the Gona designer, based in an acre, efua mensah, adding that the season’s season has become a reliable sales cycle for such businesses.

Nin Fisher, 17, with Miami in Florida, describes this experience as “unique”.

She found her designer on Instagram, attracted up to 200,000 following and “work ethics, which goes above and further, they do not minimal.”

All the WhatsApp agreements were made, including a live video call, where the tailor in Nigeria managed her and her mother through measurements.

“They made sure that each room was perfect to make my dress suitable as a glove,” she says.

When the emerald robe came, “everyone was surprised,” Nian says.

“The jelly stretched on the floor, the fabric was heavy, and the people continued to say,” oh … beautiful black queen. “

Her mother, Tony Haddley, confesses that she was nervous from the order from the border.

“But when I saw that the train that flows from my head to the floor and caught light, I instantly realized it wasn’t done in America.”

Social media was a meeting place for us teenagers and African designers who enjoy market capabilities.

When the 18-year-old Trinity Memphis went in search of a prom dress, she wanted something “rarely see” in the US and found it on a ticket from a designer based in Lagos.

Despite the fact that she had never wore a super-formal dress before, just free sundresses trusted the designer’s instructions, settling on a fitting form with “at least one of the believers.”

The two-week process was a smooth, vacuum package of the nerve package opened, but inside was a perfect dress that made her feel “like Tianga” in the graduation evening-appearing on the first African Princess Disney.

“I was very excited … Happy we didn’t need to send it back and nothing,” she says.

Her Instagram Post attracted sweet comments, curious questions and more than a few people who asked who did it.

The #africanpromdress hashtag has over 61 million views on Tiktok.

“On Instagram washes sales”, the lady is like it. “Tiktak runs glory.

For the Nigerian designer, most orders go through DMS Instagram, after potential customers viewed photos of dresses denoting her brand and then contact us.

But social media also bring complications.

Ms. original recalls a few disappointed customers who made their complaints and did not address her directly: “One girl said,” I do not want it to be decided – I want to become viral. “

This year, Mens Ephio, Designer Ak, who put 404 dresses in the United States, says: “Sometimes the dresses come late with the customs problems or the courier’s lag behind.”

Sometimes they are just broken. “There are days when we work in 20 hours that fix one robe by pacing the other,” she says.

However, the designers say that most customers are satisfied – often shoot detailed videos with a tampling, marking the brand and helping visibility and splash of orders.

The African designers who made the BBC stated that the graduation dress orders accounted for most of the annual income – in one case up to 25%.

With the team of Ms. original in Ibadan, which is already preparing for the graduation season next year, she says for the first time that she will not have to dismiss temporary staff.

However, a new 15% tariff for goods imported from Nigeria is a direct problem.

“The tariff will increase the cost … making them less competitive in the US market,” the designer says.

Although a higher price can reduce sales, it says it considers the possibility to make small adjustments, reduce costs, improve efficiency and study alternative markets to stay competitive without overloading its customers.

“Of course, I am worried,” she admits, reflecting more alarm among Nigerian companies that have fallen to changing US President Donald Trump’s policies.

Another big change will be that instead of working on an old model where each dress was created only after the order, it plans to go to the finished system, and the clothes will be available immediately.

Availability is also a key question – and though it is cheaper than buying an equivalent work in the US, a graduation evening dress requires significant financial resources.

As the market grows in sophistication and payment methods, and designers start using plans for the internet to distribute costs.

Looking back, Brian says that the price tag is worth it, because the graduation issue was everything she hoped for, because she was small.

“I remembered a lot about the graduation evening – this is what girls from childhood dream of it.

“Honestly, when my nails were ugly, my makeup was disgusting and my hair was not cute until I was in this dress, I was fine.”