#craft

Lagos Fashion Week ran Oct. 28 to Nov. 1, its 15th year since fashion entrepreneur Omoyemi Akerele founded it in 2011. Organised by Style House Files, this edition's theme was "CRAFTED: Heritage. Innovation. Circular Futures," putting traditional techniques such as weaving, dyeing, embroidery and beadwork at the centre, alongside reuse and less textile waste, 88Lately reports.

More than 50 labels took part. The main runway shows ran Oct. 29 to 31 at the LagosFW Tents at the Federal Palace Hotel on Victoria Island. Opening presentations on Oct. 28 included Sisiano's Spring/Summer 2027 collection "Some Birds Fly South", Orange Culture's "The In-Between", and "Akwete Reimagined", a capsule by ALÁRA and Emmy Kasbit built around Akwete, a traditional Nigerian woven textile.

Al Jazeera reports on AI tools that can generate or reproduce traditional Indian textile designs, from a system built by Shillong professor Bitupan Deka to create new gamusa motifs, to the Rekh Sanganeri dataset of hand-block prints and Tata Consultancy Services' Bridgital Loom, which turns designs into loom instructions and is being piloted in Kanchipuram.

Artisans quoted are split: Bagru block-printer Dinesh Chhipa says he doesn't fault digital tools but asks that they stop borrowing regional names like Bagru and Jaipuri; Kanchipuram weaver Ananthalakshmi Vadivel says machine imitations "can never replace the original." The piece notes that India floated a "blanket licence" for AI training in December 2025, but that intellectual property law assumes a traceable author, while a motif is communal property.

Ladakh presented "The Fifth Season: A Fashion Story from Ladakh" at Lakmé Fashion Week x FDCI 2026 in New Delhi on October 18, with four local designers showing Pashmina, indigenous textiles and traditional craft, the Hindustan Times reports. The show centred on the Changpa pastoralists of the high-altitude Changthang plateau, who raise Changra goats, and the artisans, many of them women, who turn the fibre into textiles.

Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena said in a virtual address that growing recognition must benefit herders, weavers, craftspeople and women's self-help groups while preserving the authenticity of Ladakh's traditions.

Design Pataki Foundation is presenting The India Show at the inaugural Kyoto YouMe Triennale, at Jushin Kaikan in Kyoto from October 9 to 18, with support from India's Ministry of Culture. Under the theme "The Future Is Handmade," five practitioners (Sarita Handa, Ajay Arya, Dheerna Matsubara, Bijin Davis and Canna Patel) show textiles, furniture, architecture, interiors and ceramics. The report comes from the organizer's own publication.

Dr. Martens is pushing a brand reset after several difficult years, centering a new campaign on cultural figures including Chloë Sevigny, Naomi Watanabe and Jordan Stephens.

Why it matters

Heritage brands face a recurring problem: keeping the product recognizable while preventing the brand from becoming nostalgia.

Dr. Martens is leaning on its craft story, subcultural history and signature “bouncing soles” while experimenting with new product categories and more localized marketing.