Presented at Lagos Fashion Week, Reni Abina’s 26-look collection moves between relaxed dressing and elaborate occasionwear, while examining how clothes become part of the experiences people remember.
Fashion often places a strong emphasis on the occasion: the wedding, the celebration, the evening out or the event that calls for something special. Rendoll’s Moments, its Spring/Summer 2027 collection presented at Lagos Fashion Week, considers a different relationship between clothing and the people who wear it. For founder and creative director Reni Abina, the value of a wardrobe lies not only in what someone wears for a major event, but also in how clothing becomes part of everyday experiences.
The collection brings this idea into a 26-look presentation, comprising 24 womenswear looks and two menswear looks. Designed and made in Lagos, it moves between fluid separates, denim and more elaborate occasion pieces. The range reflects Abina’s interest in creating clothes that feel distinctive without limiting their use to a particular setting.
“I wanted this collection to feel like a real wardrobe, one that women can see themselves wearing and enjoying in different parts of their lives,” Abina said. Her intention was to create pieces that feel special while remaining relevant to the lives of the women who wear them.
That balance informs the collection’s use of fabric and construction. Fluid satins, delicate chiffons, sheer materials and textured brocades appear across the looks. Some garments rely on volume and gathered draping, while others use more relaxed shapes. Sweeping skirts and sculptural dresses give the collection a formal character, but the inclusion of denim and separates prevents it from becoming an exercise in occasionwear alone.
Colour and texture also help distinguish the pieces. Vivid purple satin, emerald-green Mikado and black brocade provide different visual treatments across the collection. The Elsa Blouse and Margot Skirt pair a cropped white blouse, finished with Chantilly lace, with a full emerald-green Mikado skirt. The Alara Brocade Set combines a fitted, underwired bralette with a voluminous tiered skirt in textured black brocade. The Maki Ombré Dress uses cascading layers and soft gathers to shape its purple satin form.
One of the collection’s more demanding pieces is the Omi Handwoven Feather Dress. The structured A-line mini has a handwoven body and a full ostrich-feather hem. Its construction involves cutting individual fabric strips, stitching them into tubes, turning them inside out to conceal the seams and weaving them together by hand. The process requires specialist skill and considerable time. Rendoll states that each made-to-order dress takes approximately 114 hours to complete.
The dress offers a closer look at the labour behind the collection. While the finished piece is defined by its volume and texture, its construction depends on a sequence of careful manual processes. It also shows how handwork can become part of a garment’s design rather than an additional detail applied at the end.
For a Lagos-based label, this focus on construction is relevant to a wider discussion about the position of local production in contemporary fashion. Design and manufacturing in Nigeria can give brands greater control over their creative process, but the ability to maintain quality while developing more complex garments also depends on skilled hands, time and production capacity. The Omi dress makes that labour visible through a single piece.
Building beyond a recognisable aesthetic
Founded in 2019, Rendoll has developed its identity around contemporary womenswear, femininity, distinctive silhouettes and considered design. Abina established the brand while pursuing postgraduate studies. Her training in law and an MBA in Entrepreneurship and Innovation have also informed her role in building the business.
With Moments, the brand continues to explore how far its design language can extend. The collection’s relaxed pieces retain a connection to everyday dressing, while the more elaborate garments introduce a stronger occasionwear direction. This is an important development for a label seeking to serve different parts of a woman’s wardrobe without losing the visual identity that customers recognise.
The collection does not treat these categories as separate. Instead, it places them alongside one another. A customer can encounter a relaxed piece, a sharply constructed set and a sculptural dress within the same collection. This approach gives Rendoll room to reach customers with different needs while maintaining a consistent design point of view.
The business has also developed beyond its initial Lagos base. Rendoll now serves an international customer base and has wholesale relationships with retailers including Shopbop and Nuuly. It also operates a flagship store in Victoria Island, Lagos. These channels give the brand access to customers outside Nigeria while keeping its design and production base in the city where it began.
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Beauty partnership and the runway
The Moments presentation also marked a fashion partnership between Rendoll and Danessa Myricks Beauty. The beauty brand served as the official beauty partner, providing makeup products for the runway models. The collaboration was described as Danessa Myricks Beauty’s first fashion partnership in Nigeria.
The partnership adds another layer to the presentation’s creative direction, bringing beauty into the way the collection is interpreted on the runway. It also reflects the growing role of cross-industry partnerships in fashion presentations, where clothing, beauty and other creative disciplines contribute to the overall experience.
For Abina, however, the collection’s central idea remains connected to the relationship between clothing and lived experience. The clothes people remember are often linked to the events, relationships and ordinary routines that give their lives meaning. Moments takes that idea as its starting point and translates it into a wardrobe that moves between the familiar and the exceptional.
The collection’s strongest proposition is its attempt to make those two sides of dressing work together. Its elaborate dresses and detailed construction give it a clear occasionwear presence, while its separates and denim provide a more familiar point of entry. Rather than define a woman’s wardrobe by a single type of occasion, Rendoll proposes a wider view of how she dresses and what she chooses to keep.
