By Ugonnaora Owoh
WHEN I finally catch up with Eniafe Momodu, it’s in person at the Nordic Hotel in the middle of Lagos’ bustling suburbs, which Momodu has been calling home for the past week while working on some projects. Our conversation commences as we share thoughts on the recent Met Gala. He lights up as we unpack and undress this year’s theme, “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style.” It’s a lighthearted conversation, but he speaks with the clarity and authority that you would expect from Nigeria’s most prolific cultural dandy.
Momodu, a producer, photographer, writer, and entrepreneur is one of the most notable, young forces in African fashion. At just 27 years old, his creative repertoire is impressive. Born in London to a journalist father and an accountant mother, he describes his childhood as ridden with the characteristics of a multi-hyphenate. He was a precocious child whose earliest memories were shaped by his love of music and literature.
Momodu’s eccentric style has propelled his status as one of Lagos’ highly stylish individuals. Characterized by colorful garments and long-flowing silhouettes, his signature style has been replicated by many. Growing up tall and large, fashion to him was originally about concealment. His mother would dress him in clothes aimed at making him blend in and stand out as little as possible. The global pandemic and subsequent #EndSARS protests spurred his return to Lagos (having left at 16 to complete his studies in the UK), which led him to craft a new style identity.
At 11, he tells me he stumbled across an old digital camera, which instantly sparked a long-term relationship with photography and filmmaking. Throughout his early teens, he would capture candid moments of his family and friends at school. At 14, advised by a cousin to pursue photography more seriously, Eniafe approached his dad asking if he could buy him a professional camera. “I was lucky to be a second-generation creative,” he says. “My dad always encouraged my creative interests, but he was also a stubborn believer in academia.” Momodu explains that when he asked his father if he could buy a professional camera he declared he would if he received all A’s on his next report card. He notes that he doesn’t recall ever studying harder–however, he ended up receiving all A’s–and his camera was gifted by his father several weeks later.
That Nikon DSLR camera ushered in a new era for a young Eniafe, who quickly adopted photo-sharing apps like Instagram and Tumblr, becoming his secondary school’s de facto student photographer and yearbook editor shortly after. When Venus and Serena Williams visited Lagos in 2012 and hosted an inter-school tennis tournament, he was the youngest photographer granted access to document the showdown.
“I was able to see that there was a real power in photography. Being able to document specific moments, whether they were intimate or big, and seeing the joy in people’s faces as they relive moments you’ve captured. Not to mention the access it gives you. This was before everyone was a photographer and could take high-quality pictures from their phones. It was a superpower back then,” he tells ESSENCE.
Eniafe’s passion for photography continued through his joint honors degree in Economics and Philosophy at Leeds University. It was around this time that Momodu would meet and photograph popular fashion bloggers like Temi Otedola and Fisayo Longe who is the founder of KAI Collective. Today, Eniafe credits Longe as the first person to have ever paid him for his creative work.
“It’s funny because I just wanted to be in the room,” he recalls. “I had never asked anyone to pay me for my photography or for any creative input. I just wanted to learn and be a part of the process, but Fisayo made sure that if I assisted her on set or shot anything for her brand, I was paid for it. I had so much to learn about the technical side of creating. Working freelance with [Fisayo] was probably the first time I ever saw a call sheet.”
Drawing the parallel between his younger, precocious self and his current form, Eniafe is proud to have grown up with diverse passions and skills as it profoundly shaped his work life. In recent years, he’s consulted for top Nigerian fashion brands while also producing campaigns for international brands like MAC, Off-White, and Nike. He’s also worked on major festivals including ARISE Fashion Week, Africa International Film Festival, and Homecoming Festival.
“I don’t think I was ever going to be the guy, who was doing one thing and one thing only, at least not in my twenties. I was too restless to be locked into one job or career path. I don’t necessarily recommend that approach to other people but it’s worked for me so far. I’m ultimately driven by a love of storytelling and inevitably that manifests in various forms,” he shared.
With credits spanning music projects, fashion, art, curation, and archival research, it is Eniafe’s unique ability to marry creative instinct with technical proficiency that has allowed him to excel. Last year, Momodu quietly launched PRISM Creative Limited, which he described as a creative research and production house. Shortly after he served as both creative director and co-producer of Amazon Music’s original documentary “Ayra Starr: Dare To Dream.” He is also a part of the research and production team at Eleven Sixteen, the Nigerian brand founded by Ugo Mozie that recently created performance looks for Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter” tour.
Many have compared Momodu’s style to the late Vogue editor-at-large André Leon Talley. While he appreciates the comparison, Momodu notes that Talley was not originally an inspiration for his own sense of style. “I didn’t know André. I must have seen him a couple [of] times in passing but I didn’t come to appreciate him until after the comparisons started.” He added: “I don’t consider my style that eccentric personally. It’s inspired by my own West African heritage.”
“In Yoruba culture, agbadas were worn by men as a status symbol. There’s really nothing new under the sun. André [Leon Talley] did not directly inspire my style. I think African people and traditions inspired him a lot.” Despite its cultural roots, Momodu’s style was hard to come by just five years ago. Today, you can see it on every corner of Lagos: in events, in street style, in fashion shows. As a central figure in the renaissance of this cultural style, Eniafe is hyper-aware of this shift.
Brands like Fruché, Pepper Row, Eki Kere, and Emmy Kasbit have all created looks inspired by–and in some cases even named after him. While Eniafe had to customize all of his looks a few years ago, he can easily pull looks off the rack or off the runway today, as virtually every Nigerian brand has ready-made pieces in his silhouette and size. Wholly, his style evolution speaks to the timelessness of West African fashion, with Eniafe serving as the time capsule that merges the past, present, and future.