Pinstripes, Top Hats & Coral Beads: See How the Men Did High Fashion for BellaNaija at 20

BellaNaija celebrated two decades at the Grand Red Carpet Experience under the High Fashion Icon theme. Nigerian men stepped out in vintage pinstripes, Victorian tailcoats, metallic jacquard, and royal regalia.

Pinstripes, Victorian tailoring, jacquard, coral beads and a very serious amount of headwear. The men at BellaNaija’s 20th anniversary Grand Red Carpet Experience clearly had their own ideas about what High Fashion Icon should look like, and they were not all heading in the same direction. Shawn Faqua went vintage, Larry Hector brought Victorian tailoring to the carpet, Yemi Cregx played with colour and proportion, while Sydney Ihonu looked to Eastern Nigerian royal regalia for his take on the theme. The looks were part of a much bigger fashion story at the BellaNaija at 20 Grand Red Carpet Experience, where celebrities, creatives and industry figures came together to celebrate two decades of BellaNaija. With High Fashion Iconas the theme, the carpet became a place for guests to have fun with shape, tailoring, texture and personal style. While the ladies stepped out in everything from sculptural gowns to corseted suits and dramatic headpieces, the men brought their own interpretations to the brief.

First up, Shawn Faqua went straight for old-school tailoring in a pinstriped three-piece suit. The wide crossover lapels gave the jacket a strong shape, while the structured button placement and broad trousers leaned into the proportions of classic menswear. He finished the look with a matching tie, dark sunglasses, a charcoal fedora and a walking cane, taking the vintage reference all the way through rather than stopping at the suit.

Then there was Larry Hector, whose Victorian-inspired black tailcoat brought an entirely different mood to the carpet. The coat featured broad peak lapels and traditional button placement, worn with a white collar, black bow tie and black gloves. He added a tall black top hat to extend the silhouette upwards, while a crimson red feather boa fell across his shoulder, breaking up the black tailoring with a burst of colour and texture.

Yemi Cregx took a softer route, working with blush, black and metallic tones. His iridescent blush jacquard blazer sat over a high-collared black shirt, complete with a structured neck wrap and pleated waist vest. He paired the top half with charcoal wide-leg flared trousers, rectangular sunglasses and a black leather handbag, creating a look built around contrast: soft colour against dark tailoring, fitted details against wider proportions.

Sydney Ihonu brought culture directly into his interpretation of High Fashion Icon, stepping onto the red carpet in an Eastern Nigerian royal ensemble. His look began with a deep burgundy undertunic beneath a golden-beige woven cape, cut with broad angular shoulders and finished with burgundy trim. From there, he layered on the details: a burgundy velvet cap topped with twin white feathers, red coral beads around his neck, matching wrist cuffs and a traditional hand-woven fur fan.

That mix of fashion and heritage gave Sydney’s look a very different place on the carpet. While the other men played with vintage tailoring, unusual proportions and rich fabrics, he used royal regalia as the foundation, bringing a distinctly Nigerian reference into the evening’s high-fashion conversation. From Shawn Faqua’s pinstriped three-piece and Larry Hector’s top-hat-and-feather-boa combination to Yemi Cregx’s wide-leg proportions and Sydney Ihonu’s royal-inspired styling, the BellaNaija at 20 red carpet gave Nigerian menswear plenty of room to explore the High Fashion Icon brief in their own ways. See more looks below