Rachael Ojuromi has just added one of fashion’s biggest names to her growing list of achievements.
The 22-year-old Nigerian model and creative director made her Chanel runway debut in Paris on October 6, walking at the fashion house’s Spring/Summer 2027 show at the Grand Palais. The collection, titled La Conversation – Part Three – Different Faces of the Same Coin, marked a major moment for Ojuromi, but her route to the Chanel runway began much closer to home.
Before Paris, she was using the streets of Lagos as a backdrop for her own interpretation of Chanel.
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From Lagos Streets to the Chanel Runway
Ojuromi and her best friend, stylist and designer Debby Fasingha, previously recreated Chanel’s Métiers d’Art 2026 collection using thrifted and second-hand pieces sourced in Lagos.
Rather than recreating the looks in a conventional studio or polished fashion setting, they took the project to the streets. Some of the images were made around Yaba, including near the Red Line rail overpass, bringing Chanel-inspired styling into an unmistakably Lagos environment.
The project caught the attention of Matthieu Blazy, Chanel’s creative director, who responded to their post with “Everything” and a heart. The comment drew further attention to the work, with the post reportedly receiving more than 14,000 likes.
It was a striking example of how Ojuromi approaches fashion. Instead of simply reproducing a global luxury brand’s aesthetic, she places it within the visual language of the city where she grew up.
Now, she has stepped from that Lagos setting onto Chanel’s own runway.
A Model Shaped by Lagos
Born and raised in Lagos, Ojuromi has built much of her creative identity around the city.
Her work brings together modelling, styling and visual storytelling, often drawing from thrift finds in Yaba markets, Nigerian labels and pieces from her own wardrobe. Lagos is not simply a location in her work. It is part of how she sees and presents fashion.
That perspective also extends beyond modelling.
Ojuromi is the founder of The Process Africa, a platform focused on emerging African talent across fashion, film and visual arts. Through the platform and her wider creative work, she has continued to explore how African creatives can develop their own visual language while engaging with the global industry.
Her background also spans film, writing and communication, giving her work a broader creative foundation than the runway alone suggests.
Ojuromi is represented by No Smoking NYC in New York, Safe Management in Paris, SUPA Worldwide in London and Next Canada, reflecting the international reach her career is beginning to take.
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A New Chapter in Paris
Walking for Chanel places Ojuromi in a very different setting from the Lagos streets where much of her recent creative work gained attention.
Yet the two moments are connected.
The same creative instinct that saw her and Fasingha reinterpret Chanel through thrifted pieces in Yaba has now led to Ojuromi appearing in the fashion house’s Spring/Summer 2027 presentation in Paris.
For a Nigerian model whose creative identity has remained closely tied to Lagos, the Chanel debut is more than a major runway credit. It shows how a perspective developed locally can find a place on one of fashion’s most influential stages.
Ojuromi’s story is still unfolding, but her Chanel debut has already created a compelling bridge between the streets of Lagos and the Grand Palais in Paris.
At RefinedNG, we celebrate African creatives whose talent, perspective and ambition are taking them beyond borders. Follow RefinedNG for more stories about the people shaping Africa’s place in global fashion, culture and creativity.