Damilola Ademilokun is building the structure Africa’s fashion industry desperately needs by creating a whole ecosystem for talent recruitment, career development, and HR.
Across Nigeria and Africa, fashion brands struggle to hire skilled professionals who can grow with them. Talent lacks a structured pipeline and central hub for hiring, leaving most startups without a proper HR structure. Making matters worse, entry-level creatives don’t know how to position themselves, and job opportunities are scattered, vague, and sometimes inaccessible.
This disorganised system causes talented designers, stylists, merchandisers, and managers to burn out, stagnate, or be tempted to leave the industry. Damilola Ademilokun saw this clearly and decided to build a solution.
Ademilokun has over a decade of experience in Africa’s fashion industry. Her background spans project management, research, creative direction, fashion entrepreneurship, and human resources.
While working with fashion brands and creative businesses, she noticed that the real bottleneck was people—or, more precisely, the lack of a system to recruit, train, manage, and retain them. So, in June 2022, Ademilokun launched Obsidian Advisory Africa, a Lagos-based fashion recruitment and HR consultancy firm.
Obsidian Advisory Africa: HR for fashion
Obsidian connects fashion businesses with the right professionals through bespoke recruitment services. In addition to hiring, the company offers one-on-one and group career coaching for individuals trying to find clarity and direction in the industry. It also offers skill-building workshops and training programs tailored to the realities of Africa’s fashion market.
Beyond that, Obsidian helps businesses develop their internal team structures through customised HR strategies and workforce development. And for brands looking to scale, the consultancy provides long-term support in talent retention, performance systems, and company culture.
The Bridge: Nigeria’s first fashion job centre
To build a more permanent, scalable solution, Ademilokun launched The Bridge, a hybrid (physical + digital) space in Lagos that serves as Nigeria’s first dedicated fashion job centre and career hub.
Launched in March 2025, The Bridge features a curated job board and assessments like test styling tasks, sewing demos, and portfolio reviews. It also houses career counselling services and mentorship programs to support growth at every level.
Professionals can use the coworking space to collaborate or work independently, while monthly workshops and meetups will keep the community engaged and informed. The hub also offers guides and resources that break down the different career pathways in fashion.
The first cohort of The Bridge Program saw 25% of graduates secure internships and job placements in reputable fashion companies.
Alongside this, Ademilokun further organises the Fashion Career Summit & Fair—an annual event that gathers a full spectrum of industry stakeholders.
Since 2022, over 4,000 people have attended each edition, which welcomes fashion business leaders, emerging designers and creatives, recruiters and HR experts, investors, partners, coaches, and mentors.
Strategic Partnerships
Damilola Ademilokun has built strong partnerships with major organisations such as Jobberman Nigeria, the Mastercard Foundation, and the United Nations Fashion & Lifestyle Network to broaden her impact.
In 2023, she took her insights even further. She published “How to Break Into Africa’s Fashion Industry” to help early-career professionals understand fashion, define their niche, and get a foot in the door.
