GTCO Fashion Weekend: Bringing African Businesses to the Forefront

GTCO Fashion Weekend is an initiative by Guaranty Trust Holding Company plc (GTCO), a financial institution that operates in Nigeria, Africa. As one of its means of giving back to the community in which it operates, the institution 2016 launched the maiden edition of the “GTBank Fashion Weekend,” now called “GTCO Fashion Weekend.” The two-day event has been held yearly ever since on a weekend in November. The event is themed “Promoting Enterprise”.

On the basis of the theme, the fashion event goes beyond a fashion show, but is an avenue to celebrate fashion, creativity, and business, emphasizing GTCO’s commitment to empowering small businesses and a growing economy. The essence is to bring together local SME retailers in fashion and beauty and help them gain visibility, exposure to a wide and international audience, and a vast media presence.

The event runs a fashion runway show, having African designers showcase their designs on the runway, master classes on fashion and beauty by industry experts (not limited to Nigerians), and a retail marketplace that consists of fashion, beauty, and food.

These retail outlets are assigned to (small) businesses for FREE on the basis of registration, and a selection process is carried out to determine eligible vendors.

Vendors range from clothing brands (both male and female apparel) to jewelry and accessory brands, hair and cosmetic brands, shoe brands, kids’ clothing brands, and even food vendors. The initiative provides emerging designers, creative professionals, small businesses, and entrepreneurs with an opportunity to showcase their skills and products to industry experts and fashion enthusiasts, as well as meet new clients, network, and build relationships that would enable them to grow.

Diving into this year’s edition (2024), The retail outlets had people swooning in and out. There were two sections where retail took place: an indoor section and an outdoor section. While the basis for the different sections is unclear to me (whether it is based on brand recognition or to create more room) as the indoor section seemed more comfortable; there were a lot of buying and selling going on. The outdoor section was divided into two, having the fashion and beauty section on one side and the food section opposite it.

There were a number of vendors as expected. In the indoor section there were Cosmetic brands such as Mac Cosmetics, Zaron, Didi Beauty co., Hair brands such as Oneandko Hair and Beauty Ltd., clothing brands such as Lagos Shirt Factory, Kymtoyko, Jenutua Clothing, House of Joel, Kids clothing brands such as 7teen09, Bag and accessory brands such as Lola Signatures, amongst others; In the outdoor section there were Undergarment brands such as Cinched by JS, Clothing brands such as VWH Apparel, Flusso Apparel, Lolani Allure, Incurve, Kira Boutique, Zurizola Living, Shoe brands such as Vinc and Eliz, Ejre Publik, amongst others; Food Vendors such as Jconceptz Limited, A+ Plus Cocktails and drinks, Shaks, Boli and Grills amongst others.

In conclusion, this initiative by GTCO is a great one, as it is not aimed at making profit but at giving back to the community in which it operates and the Nigerian and African economy at Large.