By Chinazam Ikechi-Uko.

Miley Cyrus obliterated a dozen teens’ childhood obsessions with her when she dropped the music video for We Can’t Stop in 2014. It marked her official transition into being a young adult entertainer and shed her Disney roots. It had everything an adult video could have; an allusion to substance abuse, partial nudity, twerking, grills, a bad haircut, and a Beats By Dre speaker placement.

If you grew up in the 2010s, the unabashed placement of Beats By Dre products was synonymous with music videos. From the headphones to the loudspeakers, every A-list artiste seemed to have one in their music video. For example, Lady Gaga was being auctioned off in the Bad Romance music video yet still had time to strategically insert the Beats By Dre headphones along with its laptops created in partnership with HP. Well, the random Beats By Dre placement might have a renaissance moment thanks to its collaboration with Tyla and before that, there was the Mowalola collab.

However, electronic brands were not the only thing that artistes sought collaboration with, there were fashion brands too. This created an avenue for celebrities to showcase more of their creative sides, they might be recognized sonically but many jump at the opportunity to make visual art.

The question about whether these were successful or not is best dismissed because capsule collections are meant to be glitches in the mind, it happened and then they moved on. Like a celebrity film cameo, nevertheless, some are genuinely passionate about fashion and create brands such as PIÈCE ET PATCH by Wavy The Creator, MAINS London by Skepta and most recently, Zero To The World (ZTTW) by Zlatan Ibile.

Here are the Nigerian fashion collaborations that you almost forgot about and the ones that never truly happened.

Tems X Tommy Hilfiger:

Tems is a certified fashion girl, with her jaw-dropping red carpet and performance looks. Tems’ status as a marketable fashion persona has been solidified by her annual closet sales whose racks always got emptied. So her stepping into a director’s seat for a fashion line was not an outrageous route and she did it with fashion giant, Tommy Hilfiger. The Tommy brand is not foreign to collaborations and its portfolio of bonafide stars such as Gigi Hadid, Zendaya and Lewis Hamilton. In 2022, Tems joined the list, creating a Tems X Tommy Hilfiger for its denim line, Tommy Jeans. 

Unfortunately, we were gaslit because when the reveal happened, turns out Tems was not in the director’s seat but in the brand ambassador’s seat as the Tems X Tommy Hilfiger was a tease to announce her as the central figure in its campaign for Tommy Jeans’ Spring 2022 collection.

Rema X BoohooMan:

This may come as some sort of Mandela effect but it did happen, and it happened two years ago. Afrobeats sensation Rema teamed up with online retailer BoohooMan for an exclusive capsule collection titled ‘Rave and Roses’. The collection which drew its inspiration from the identically titled Rema album featured an array of garments including oversized hoodies, t-shirts, jersey shorts, bucket hats, tank tops, socks, trucker caps, patchwork jeans, and a  PU applique bomber jacket. Each item featured designs that referenced the Rema brand and album; which is a fancy way of saying there were bats and teddy bear motifs.

Davido X Puma:

Around this time last year, the only white outfits that were synonymous with Davido were the ones available on the Puma site. The sportswear collection featured hats, T-shirts and a tracksuit barring the Nigerian flag colours, green and white. According to Billboard, Davido took on the role of a creative director as he designed each piece with comfort and style in mind, as well as an important quote he emblazoned on every item because of how engrained it is in his own mind. We believe he did that because many have forgotten but this is not his first fashion collaboration. No, this brings us to the next collaboration you forgot existed.

Davido X Orange Culture:

Davido might not show it but fashion is something that speaks to him and he wanted everyone to know this as far back as 2017. His hit song If was on the radio and he was on his Thirty Billion World tour. As a gift that kept on giving, Davido and Orange Culture dropped a capsule collection exclusive to Selfridges, London. 2017 was a great year for both teams, with Davido on his hit-after-hit streak and the Nigerian androgynous brand, Orange Culture had been a finalist for the LVMH prize of 2016. Think of it as Godzilla and Kong coming together to save the world from the monkey, just that this time it was to save the cultural ecosystem.

Tiwa Savage X MAC:

Back in the post-pandemic years, Tiwa Savage became the first-ever M.A.C Maker of African descent when she partnered with M.A.C Cosmetics and created a limited-edition matte bright red lipstick in 2022. The lipstick came in special packaging designed by Tiwa herself. It featured a sunset gradient with a sketched silhouette of Tiwa and her signature. The partnership might be two years old but you can still purchase it online.

Asake X Waf:

Now this is the real Mandela effect because there is little to no digital footprint of this collaboration excluding a few Instagram posts. It was designed to be part of a special exhibit at the Alàra concept store inside the Brooklyn Museum in New York. In 2023, Alàra held a retail experience during the Victoria and Albert’s landmark show ‘Africa Fashion’ run at the Brooklyn Museum. The retail experience featured homegrown brands and WAF unveiled a collection with Asake.

Temi Otedola X Orange Culture:

Orange Culture is a seasoned brand when it comes to blurring the lines between what makes a successful collaboration. The brand has an archive of collections with Davido, Denola Grey and at some point, we had a Temi Otedola collection. The collection was called JTO x OC Collection, with JTO being Temi’s initials. 

The clothes aimed to evoke a sense of nostalgia for simpler times. They featured bold colours, and African-inspired patterns like adire, and used handcrafted materials sourced from Nigeria. There were also gender-neutral pieces making the collection inclusive. This was during the years of her running a fashion blog called JTO Fashion.