Yeside Laguda’s clothes rarely rely on one trick.

A kaftan can be relaxed but still feel polished. A ruched mesh dress can be body-conscious without becoming rigid. Pleats, drape, tassels and colour often provide the movement, while the silhouette stays clear enough to feel wearable beyond a single event.

That balance has been developing for years. Laguda began doing fashion business while studying in England, supplying clothes to boutiques in Nigeria before returning home in the mid-2000s. She established MyQ in Lagos in 2007, first building a business around bespoke fashion and ready-to-wear before the label evolved into the Yeside Laguda name seen today.

Her route into fashion was not through a conventional design-school path. She studied Environmental Chemistry at the University of Reading and later Strategic Management at the University of Wales. The business instinct came early; the design language took shape through years of making, retailing and understanding what women actually wanted to wear.

A designer who has always valued wearability

One of the clearest constants in Laguda’s work is a refusal to make clothes unnecessarily complicated. In interviews from her MyQ years, she described her designs as simple, fashionable and not loud. That restraint still matters, even as the current collection has become more textural and expressive.

The Amira Kaftan With Black Tassels captures that approach well. The silhouette is easy and generous, but a belt brings shape to the waist and the black tassel gives the garment a finishing detail without overwhelming it.

That mix of comfort and finish helps explain why kaftans, boubous and fluid dresses continue to recur in the brand. They work with Lagos weather, they move well, and they can shift from daytime to occasion dressing through fabric and detail rather than complicated construction.

Adire became a canvas, not a costume

Laguda’s relationship with Adire is especially important to her design story. By the late 2010s, she was speaking openly about wanting greater control over her textiles and about the economic value of producing fabric locally. For her Roots collection, Adire became a way to connect contemporary womenswear with Nigerian craft while keeping the shapes modern.

That interest deepened. In 2022, while presenting her Dawn collection, Laguda explained that she had increasingly built collections around Adire because it gave her more control over colour, placement and mood. She also developed her own prints, including an Eyo-inspired design that paid homage to Lagos.

The point was never to make every garment look traditional. Adire functioned as a design tool: a soft surface that could be draped, shaped, layered or turned into something more formal.

Drape is one of the brand’s strongest signatures

The Achu Midi Drape Dress shows how Laguda uses movement to create impact. The dress is not built around heavy structure; the interest comes from how the fabric falls and gathers around the body.

The newer Alaere Drape Dress continues the same idea in a more refined occasion direction. Drape softens the silhouette, creates visual movement and allows the dress to feel dressed-up without depending on dense embellishment.

That is a recurring Yeside Laguda strength: the fabric is often allowed to do part of the design work.

Ruched mesh brings a sharper, more body-conscious mood

Not everything in the collection is fluid. The Arewa Ruched Dress uses stretch mesh and ruching to sit much closer to the body.

Ruching changes the mood completely. Where the kaftans rely on ease and volume, Arewa is more sculpted and evening-led. The current Pink Eko Mesh Dress pushes that language further, using mesh in a silhouette intended for weddings, celebrations and events.

Pleats and tulle bring ceremony without heaviness

The Alaere Tulle Dress shows another side of the brand’s occasionwear. Pleated fabric gives the upper part of the dress structure and rhythm, while a velvet waistline and tulle hem create contrast and movement.

It is a good example of why Laguda’s work can feel formal without becoming stiff. Pleats, tulle and drape introduce volume, but the clothes still move. For weddings and evening events, that sense of movement often photographs more beautifully than a silhouette that depends only on rigid construction.

The kaftan remains part of the brand’s identity

Yeside Laguda’s earlier collections included boubous, kaftans and long flowing dresses, and those silhouettes have never disappeared. They remain especially useful because they sit naturally between modest dressing, occasionwear and everyday elegance.

The Amira Kaftan is one expression of that. Newer pieces such as the Saylor Kaftan and Nile Kimono continue the interest in generous shapes that can be worn with minimal styling. A strong pair of earrings, sandals or a structured bag is often enough; the garment already provides the proportion and movement.

That makes the brand particularly relevant to women who want statement clothing without always wanting body-conscious tailoring.

Yeside Laguda can be structured too

The current collection also includes sharper pieces that stop the brand from being defined only by drape. The Coral Jacket brings tailoring into the wardrobe as a separate rather than a full occasion look.

The Kene Dress takes structure into occasionwear, balancing a more defined silhouette with enough movement to keep the dress from feeling severe.

What contemporary Nigerian style looks like through her lens

Yeside Laguda’s version of contemporary Nigerian fashion is less about choosing between “traditional” and “modern” than about refusing the divide. Adire can become a global ready-to-wear fabric. A kaftan can feel current. Mesh and tulle can sit beside local textile references. A Lagos cultural symbol such as Eyo can become a print story rather than a costume.

The brand’s own current language describes its clothes as timeless rather than trend-driven, and that is probably the most useful way to understand the collection. The silhouettes change, but the goal remains consistent: clothes with enough identity to stand out and enough ease to be worn again.

Every current Yeside Laguda piece is made in Lagos, and the brand continues to offer bespoke work alongside ready-to-wear. That local production matters because the story of the label has always been tied to building fashion within Nigeria rather than simply attaching Nigerian imagery to garments made elsewhere.

A long-running Lagos label still evolving

From MyQ’s early ready-to-wear years to Adire-led collections and today’s mix of mesh, pleats, drape, kaftans and structured occasionwear, Yeside Laguda has never stayed completely still.

The through-line is not a single print or garment. It is the confidence to make Nigerian womenswear feel recognisable without making it predictable.

Explore the current Yeside Laguda collection on ADJOAA, or discover more Nigerian labels in our guide to Black-owned clothing brands to shop online.