The museum gift shop is becoming a full-fledged fashion destination for the primary time.

Because the “Africa Fashion” exhibit opens on the Brooklyn Museum Friday, Alára, West Africa’s first fashion, luxury and lifestyle concept store, will open as a boutique beside it.

The link-up with the museum is the Lagos, Nigeria-based store’s first foray outside of Africa, and founder Reni Folawiyo felt it was time to present the eight-year-old concept shop global reach.

“Alára is a celebration of Africa, a celebration of Africans, an education for us in addition to other people on the planet. It represents an elevation of all the pieces that we do,” Folawiyo told WWD. “’Alára’ means the wondrous performer, one which thrills endlessly [in the Yoruba language]. For me, the various elements of creativity in Africa is a continuing thrill and a journey of discovery. And I say that because there really is a lot to find and to show and to show people about.”

Rachel Shechtman, Brooklyn Museum’s entrepreneur in residence, felt similarly when she discovered what the shop was doing. What began as LinkedIn outreach from Folawiyo’s son Sayo outlining what Alára does, led to an invite for Shechtman to see for herself, and culminated in a latest matchup between museum and marketplace.

“By the point I went there I knew in regards to the exhibition coming to the Brooklyn Museum,” Shechtman said. “Listen, [Sir] David Adjaye [award winning Ghanaian-British architect] designed her store. She sells Louboutin and YSL next to African brands. I didn’t should walk within the front door to know that it might be genius.”

The aim in bringing Alára to the museum, she added, was to lend the exhibition shop experience a latest sort of authority and authenticity, which Folawiyo worked with the museum’s director of merchandising and retail strategy Kate Foley, to do.

“Partnering with Brooklyn Museum is an excellent, wonderful opportunity for us, just because of what they stand for in Recent York and the way similar our values are around culture and art and inclusion and community,” Folawiyo said. “And we also learned that the ‘African Fashion’ exhibition that was coming from the V&A was being expanded to incorporate lifestyle, music, community — things that weren’t in the primary exhibition — and by the looks of it, we fit perfectly into that.”

In Lagos, Alára is a vibe, it’s a destination, it’s a creative community of African talent, from fashion, to ceramics, to art installations and even nourishment, with onsite restaurant Nok known for its celebration of pan-African cuisine. “It’s greater than a store,” Folawiyo said.

In Brooklyn, it’s already a vibe, too, with Wednesday night’s press and VIP opening seeing the shop flooded with visitors feasting their eyes on treasures from indigo clothing to handwoven handbags, multi-hued ceramics and contemporary jewelry, amongst other things. Most ended up within the checkout line and all were abuzz about Alára’s offerings.

“For me [Alára is] about taking that creativity, taking today’s world and looking out at it and saying, ‘where can we fit and the way do people see us?’ and understanding that, previously, the world didn’t see us in a certain way. After which it’s taking all of the talent and the skill that I see and putting it on a pedestal and saying, ‘that is what now we have.’ It’s saying that to Africans and saying that to the remainder of the world and understanding that nobody can actually dispute that after they do see it,” she explained. “It’s a platform of that celebration and education, which I felt that for a very long time people didn’t get the possibility to experience.”

What is going to manifest on the museum is a mini version of the mama Alára and “a living version of the exhibition,” featuring pieces from included designers and exclusives only for this shop.

“Perhaps when you’re within the exhibition, you see a more elevated, probably more conceptual piece from a designer. By the point you come into Alára, that piece is a wearable piece from the designer,” Folawiyo explained. “When you take Thebe Magugu, who’s within the exhibition, he’s created very loose silk dresses with pictures of African women in front of it. And he all the time tells these special stories together with his pieces and this was made specially for us.”

No less than 10 designers featured within the exhibit could have pieces within the shop, including apparel and accessories. Other designers from the continent with pieces within the Lagos location may also be featured. The museum shop will come complete with collabs and drops that can roll out over the exhibit’s tenure, from Friday through Oct. 22.

Air Afrique, a Parisian collective of creatives resurfacing the name and aesthetic of a defunct West African airline, has created an exclusive T-shirt for the Alára museum shop. Nigerian skate culture hub Wafflesncream and Recent York-based jewelry brand Khiry have also created pieces for the shop. Drops can be relayed through marketing on each Alára and the Brooklyn Museum’s web sites, in addition to on social media channels.

Lagos Space Program, a label Folawiyo is “particularly enthusiastic about” and whose designer Adeju Thompson just won the International Woolmark Prize, was a finalist for the LVMH, and who will show at Palais de Tokyo during Paris Fashion Week on Sunday, created a capsule collection of accessories for the Alára museum shop.

“I’m excited in regards to the depth of what he does and his ability to cross many, many boundaries and borders, simply because he understands tips on how to stand out as an African designer,” she said.

Africa has brought — and continues to bring — lots to the table, and Folawiyo wants more people to find out about it.

“I would love a whole lot of people to return and discover what we’ve done, what we’re doing in Africa and why we imagine that we naturally fit into the worldwide conversation of fashion,” she said. “What we bring from Africa is a latest idea to the table based on what people had seen before or what has been sold to the world about Africa, Africa design, Africa craftsmanship…what we hope to bring is an authentic representation of what we live, of how we live and what we see every day from the various regions. And that’s to say it’s not dashiki, it’s not just a few weird, overly commercialized things; we actually create real designs, real pieces which might be a whole lot of times rooted in our culture that we unearth and make into these contemporary pieces.

“Having that authentic process and having an authentic way of showing the world, that’s bringing something latest.”

As as to whether there are plans for a more everlasting Alára stateside, it’s possible, Folawiyo said. “Yes, we’ve thought of that depending on how this goes.”

Contributions by Rosemary Feitelberg.