By Josephine Agbonkhese

Chisom Clara Aguocha understands something many designers learn too late: talent is common, but structure is rare.

That’s the thinking behind The Giveno Circle her annual community programme built to strengthen the next generation of Nigerian fashion creatives with the kind of practical foundation the industry quietly demands, but doesn’t always teach.

Hosted as a five-day, free training intensive, The Giveno Circle is not positioned as a motivational talkshop. It’s a working classroom hands-on, skills-first, and deliberately grounded in ethical fashion practice. Aguocha uses the platform to teach foundational fashion practicals: the essentials that determine whether a young designer can move from “ideas” to real garments, real clients, and real business systems. The emphasis is clear: craft matters, finishing matters, and the way you produce matters too.

This year’s edition, held 5th–9th May 2025 at the muson centre in Onikan Lagos and proudly sponsored by the lagos state ministry of art & culture, brought together about 62 young participants, many of them emerging designers at the fragile beginning stage where guidance can either accelerate growth or where the lack of it can stall careers for years.

In a landscape where access to quality training often comes with heavy fees, The Giveno Circle’s free model is not just generous it’s strategic social investment. It reduces the barrier to entry for young creatives who have ambition but limited resources, and it helps professionalise new talent before they enter the market unprepared.

What makes The Giveno Circle particularly relevant is the ethical lens Aguocha insists on. She doesn’t teach fashion as a shortcut to clout; she teaches it as a discipline with responsibility encouraging young designers to think about waste reduction, mindful sourcing, fair production habits, and sustainable decision-making from the start.

That approach is timely. As global fashion increasingly interrogates its impact, programmes like this position Nigerian emerging talent to compete internationally not only on aesthetics, but on standards.
In practical terms, the impact is visible in three places:

Skills uplift: participants leave with clearer technical direction and stronger practical confidence.

Industry mindset: they are introduced to ethical production habits early, before bad practices become normalised.

Community building: it creates a pipeline of connected young designers who can grow together, share knowledge, and build healthier fashion ecosystems.

The Giveno Circle is, in many ways, Aguocha doing what institutions and industry structures should have done long ago building capacity, setting standards, and giving young creatives a fair start. In a sector that often celebrates finished success but ignores the fragile beginnings, this programme is a reminder that real leadership in fashion isn’t just what you produce it’s what you build for others.