E•S•O by Liman is a contemporary womenswear fashion brand based in Lagos, Nigeria, founded and led by Tunde Shoremekun Liman. The label integrates African cultural heritage, traditional craftsmanship, modern silhouettes, and sustainability, positioning clothing as a medium for storytelling and cultural memory. Industry Africa lists the brand as established in 2021, while the brand’s own materials describe its practice as rooted in Lagos and focused on heritage, identity, community, and conscious production.1

Industry Africa identifies E•S•O by Liman as a Nigerian womenswear label established in 2021 and based in Nigeria.2

E•S•O by Liman emerged from Lagos’s contemporary fashion scene, with Tunde Shoremekun Liman serving as founder and creative director. The brand’s design philosophy developed around the concept that clothing can function as a form of cultural record, preserving memories, rituals, inherited knowledge, and stories through textiles and garments.

Rather than treating African heritage solely as visual decoration, the label incorporates traditional techniques and locally produced materials into contemporary fashion. Its stated approach includes collaboration with artisans whose skills have been passed down between generations.3

The brand has subsequently appeared within the Lagos Fashion Week ecosystem. In 2023, E•S•O by Liman was among the Green Access finalists, with Lagos Fashion Week describing the label as locally focused, artisan-collaborative, and committed to ethical production.

The brand is generally styled as E•S•O by Liman rather than simply “LIMAN.” Several fashion-industry profiles explain E.S.O as referring to the Yoruba word for “beauty.” The name therefore connects the label’s contemporary fashion identity to Yoruba cultural and linguistic heritage.4 The “by Liman” portion identifies the designer and founder behind the label, Tunde Shoremekun Liman.

Tunde Shoremekun Liman is a Nigerian fashion designer from Lagos and the founder and CEO/creative director of E•S•O by Liman. A profile published by Kouture Paradisé identifies him as born and raised in Lagos and describes his creative influences as including African heritage, modern architecture, and natural forms.5

His design practice is particularly concerned with storytelling. Instead of separating fashion from history and culture, Liman uses garments to reinterpret elements of African and specifically West African dress for contemporary audiences. This approach is evident in collections that reference historical forms of dress while altering their proportions, construction, materials, and styling for modern womenswear.

E•S•O by Liman describes fashion as a “living archive”—a way of carrying heritage, memory, and identity into the present. Its official statement emphasizes three closely connected ideas:

1. Cultural preservation — maintaining traditional textile practices and artisanal knowledge.
2. Contemporary expression — translating historical and cultural references into modern silhouettes.
3. Sustainability — using local materials, conscious production methods, and techniques intended to reduce waste.6

This gives the brand a distinctive position within contemporary African fashion. Its designs are not simply traditional garments reproduced unchanged; instead, traditional references are reinterpreted through modern fashion construction.

The E•S•O by Liman aesthetic can broadly be described as sculptural, expressive, culturally rooted, and contemporary. Common characteristics include:

• Exaggerated or elongated silhouettes
• Layered garments
• Draping and voluminous forms
• Distinctive necklines
• Handcrafted surface details
• Beadwork and embroidery
• Locally sourced or hand-treated textiles
• Traditional African textile references
• Contemporary tailoring
• Restrained as well as strongly contrasting colour palettes

The result is clothing that often sits between artisanal fashion and modern luxury womenswear. The label’s work is intended to be visually distinctive while retaining a strong connection to its cultural references.7

West African history is one of the most important sources of inspiration for the label. A particularly clear example is the Autumn/Winter 2024 collection “The Act of Wearing,” presented during Lagos Fashion Week’s Woven Threads Edition. The collection looked to the way West African women dressed during the pre-colonial period, particularly the ritual and visual significance of dressing.8

The collection incorporated references such as:

• Large wrapped forms
• Coral-inspired adornment
• Wooden elements
• Exaggerated proportions
• Traditional dressing rituals
• Handcrafted decoration

These references were transformed rather than reproduced literally. The collection used contemporary silhouettes to reinterpret the fullness and elegance associated with historical West African dress.9

Sustainability is a major component of E•S•O by Liman’s brand identity. The company’s own description emphasizes locally made textiles, hand-dyed fabrics, traditional techniques, and collaboration with artisans. It presents sustainability not merely as an environmental issue but also as a question of preserving human skills, supporting communities, and maintaining cultural knowledge.10

The label has also explored upcycling and zero-waste approaches. “The Act of Wearing,” for example, incorporated zero-waste pattern cutting alongside sustainable printmaking and fabric choices.11 This creates a broader concept of sustainability encompassing environmental responsibility, local production, artisan preservation, and cultural continuity.

Craftsmanship is central to the brand’s identity. E•S•O by Liman works with local artisans and traditional techniques rather than relying exclusively on standardized industrial production.12 Its work has incorporated elements such as:

• Hand-dyed textiles
• Embroidery
• Beadwork
• Hand-developed prints
• Traditional textile techniques
• Upcycled materials
• Locally sourced fabrics

The brand therefore places considerable importance on the relationship between material, maker, and finished garment.13

The Act of Wearing (A/W 2024)

One of the label’s most documented collections is The Act of Wearing, launched at Lagos Fashion Week in 2024. The collection explored West African women’s historical relationship with clothing and dressing rituals. Its visual vocabulary included exaggerated silhouettes, sweeping forms, cowl necklines, beadwork, and wooden details. The colour palette included milk, black, midnight blue, burgundy, and sky blue.5

The collection is significant because it demonstrates the brand’s overall methodology: historical research leading to cultural interpretation, contemporary fashion design, and artisanal execution.

The Teaser Collection

Another body of work described in connection with Tunde Liman drew inspiration from how West African women dressed in pre-colonial times, translating historical elements into modern silhouettes.14

E•S•O by Liman primarily operates in womenswear, offering contemporary garments rather than a broad lifestyle product portfolio. Industry Africa categorizes it specifically as womenswear.15 Examples of pieces associated with the label include:

• Dresses
• Tops
• Trousers
• Jackets
• Layered sets
• Skirts
• Shirts and shirtdresses
• Statement outerwear

Current retail listings also show pieces such as Aso Oke pants, hand-print sets, embroidered dresses, deconstructed shirtdresses, ruched maxis, and layered pants-and-jacket sets.

E•S•O by Liman occupies a niche within the growing contemporary African luxury-fashion sector. Its positioning is based less on conventional European luxury codes and more on the combination of African cultural identity, contemporary design, artisanal craftsmanship, and sustainability.

The brand consequently appeals to consumers interested in fashion that has a cultural narrative as well as a strong visual identity. Kouture Paradisé describes its customer base as modern, conscious shoppers interested in craftsmanship, sustainability, distinctive aesthetics, and high-quality fashion.

E•S•O by Liman belongs to a younger generation of Nigerian designers using fashion to communicate contemporary African identity to both domestic and international audiences. Lagos is particularly important to this development because it has become one of Africa’s major fashion and creative-industry centres. E•S•O by Liman’s Lagos origin is therefore not incidental: the city forms part of the cultural and creative environment from which the brand developed.

Its participation in Lagos Fashion Week and its inclusion among the 2023 Green Access finalists further connect the brand with Nigeria’s emerging sustainable-fashion movement.

What makes E•S•O by Liman particularly notable is that its concept of African fashion is not limited to prints, colours, or recognizable traditional garments. Instead, the brand treats heritage as a source of knowledge, examining how people dressed, how textiles were produced, how garments were constructed, and what clothing meant within society.

Its work consequently sits at the intersection of fashion, cultural preservation, sustainability, and contemporary African identity. In that sense, E•S•O by Liman represents a broader movement in Nigerian fashion in which designers are using contemporary design to preserve and reinterpret cultural knowledge rather than simply reproduce historical clothing.

1. About US – E•S•O by Liman
2. E.S.O by Liman
3. E•S•O by Liman | Sustainable African Fashion
4. E.S.O BY LIMAN
5. Check Out ‘The Act of Wearing’: A Tribute to West African Elegance from E•S•O by Liman | BN Style
6. Sarıyer Odaklı TikTok Moda ve Giyim Marka İsimleri (400+ Öneri)
7. Ba, Liman Trademarks Page 1 :: Justia Trademarks
8. E•S•O by Liman Just Released a Vibrant New Collection – And We Want Every Look! | BN Style
9. LIMAN RESTAURANT Trademark of Liman Restaurant, Inc. – Registration Number 3885892 – Serial Number 85015641 :: Justia Trademarks
10. Liman Pharmaceuticals Private Limited
11. Liman Pharmaceuticals – Products
12. Liman Pharmaceuticals – Quality
13. Liman Pharmaceuticals – Management
14. Kouture Paradisé | KP
15. Liman | LinkedIn