Thursday 7th of May 2026

Nairobi, Kenya

Tag: African Fashion

What Went Down on Day 1 of SA Fashion Week SS21 Digital Collections

Posted on by Oscar Alochi

Sustainable fashion. Self-expression. Graceful and edgy artistry. Classic and playful elegance. Personal stories. And going back to basics.

This was Day 1 of SA Fashion Week SS21 digital collections which included fresh talent and legendary designers. Words: Kgomotso Moncho-Maripane

The SA Fashion Week tagline, “The business of ethical fashion” encapsulates its ethos precisely. Running with this, sustainable fashion became the underlying theme with which designers in the New Talent Search were tasked to follow when designing. Upcycled and deconstructed fabrics were a running thread all around.

With a collection inspired by “De-gendered geometry”, Michael Ludwig Studio showed how the fluidity of structures, proportions, and colors shape evolving identities.

MC Alpine played with interesting shapes and details, while Sipho Mbuto took an avant-garde approach to deconstruct denim.

Stand-out looks from the competition include Fikile Zamagcino Sokhulu’s soft and edgy collection boasting a red, white, and black color palette with images that boldly speak to the beginning and the resilience of life, relevant to what our world is going through.

Her collection was inspired by “how planet earth strives for an ecological balance within the forces of nature.”

The debut of Thulani Vuyo Mlambo’s Saint Vuyo shone with notable layering and tailoring. With a brand ethos taken from his lineage, the collection invoked the spirit of Africa’s women armies like the Dahomey Amazons – the all-female warriors of West Africa. Again, a testament to strength and survival.

However, it was Artho Eksteen’s winning combination of fine art and fashion design that saw him take the 2021 New Talent Search winner title.

His collection takes cues from the Surrealist method of Exquisite Corpse where a collection of images or words is collectively assembled to reveal a completed artwork.

Eksteen played with the juxtaposition of different fabrics and textures; different silhouettes and prints to bring together a body of work that is appealingly ugly-beautiful. The beauty is also in how functional the collection is even if it was to be deconstructed.

Read more on the New Talent Search Competition finalist designers here and watch out for our fashion shoot with New Talent Competition winner Artho Eksteen soon!

The Satiskin Rise & Shine Collections brimmed with playful and classic elegance showcasing designers who are retail ready. Romaria charmed with their signature monochromatic wool prints offering subtle pops of woven color. Even more charming were the wool accessories that ranged from bags to headbands.

The story behind the Ezokhetho collection is about the designer, Mpumelelo Dhlamini, having lost his dad. And so, the bold and joyful colors are in celebration of his father’s life. The designs are inspired by a character that the iconic Thembi Nyandeni played in the comedic drama series, Kwakhala Nyonini called uMfazi Wephepha.

The much-loved character was loud, opinionated, fashion-forward, and money-driven. Dhlamini interprets this with exaggerated shapes, playful proportions, and a sophisticated and desirable finish.

Previous New Talent Search winners, ERRE are consistent in the exquisite nuance they bring out in the fabrics they choose to work with. In the past, they have worked ingeniously with leather and moved past its limitations.

Here they highlight scuba fabric, velvet, and techno mesh with voluminous, dramatic, and powerful silhouettes.

Lara Klawikowski exuded elegant grace with her Inflorescence collection that boasts botanical hues and organic shapes resembling tarot tulips. Big on sustainability, her romantic looks were achieved from rewoven plastics and offcuts. See our recent story on Lara here.

Chiefs of Angels presented a rebellious edge with their punk rock-themed collection.

With Oscar Ncube’s fabric ripping and distressing, he showed a more punky expression than the technical design.

Jacques van der Watt closed off the night with a show that goes back to the very essence of what has made Black Coffee a formidable force in the design world.

The geometric prints and architectural structures were recognizable. It is the collection’s military and laid-back mood that brings it back to now as we fight for survival in this Covid19 pandemic. As poet Lebo Mashile says, “Style is in the survival of my people.”

Content courtesy of ASA Online Magazine & Nairobi fashion hub 

African Fashion Huge Potential for e-Commerce Growth in African markets

Posted on by Oscar Alochi

DURBAN – WHILE South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya have the highest internet penetration in the continent, e-commerce penetration was at less than 40 percent, a report by PayU has found.

Among the three African countries included in the report, South Africa had the highest internet penetration at 56 percent, with Nigeria and Kenya at 46 percent and 31 percent, respectively. However, e-commerce penetration was at 37 percent in both Nigeria and South Africa and at 25 percent in Kenya.

The report by PayU, a payments and fintech business of Proses, said this highlighted the significant potential for growth in e-commerce in these markets.

The data found that Nigeria was by far the largest e-commerce market in Africa in terms of the number of shoppers and revenue, with predicted consumer spend expected to be several times those of South Africa and Kenya combined.

Kenya was primed for a boom in e-commerce, with the digital goods sector forecast to expand by 94 percent from 2019 levels by the end of this year, and the fashion and gallantry sector expected to grow by a massive 160 percent over the same time.

In South Africa, the market was embracing digitalization and e-commerce. There were abundant opportunities across every sector, but particularly for specialist merchants in beauty, cosmetics, fashion, and gallantry.

Karen Nadasen, the chief executive of PayU South Africa, said 2020 was a year that lit a fire beneath online payments in South Africa, transforming e-commerce while creating immense economic pressure.

“There is growing attention on our continent, increased investment from large international brands and payment platforms. Retailers adopted quickly over the last year, and despite early bans on non-essential purchases, we saw significant growth in e-commerce, with more and more transactions being completed on mobile devices – up 35 percent on 2019 levels in South Africa as an example,” said Nadasen.

Online and omnichannel merchants were said to be realizing more opportunities, as multiple factors combined to bring African countries to an e-commerce adoption tipping point. This was particularly the case for merchants in fashion, beauty, education, and digital goods.

According to PayU data, year-on-year online spending in the beauty and cosmetics category in South Africa grew by 140 percent between 2019 and 2020. Spending particularly ramped up in last year’s third quarter, increasing by 229 percent compared to the same period in 2019, and was expected to grow by 69 percent to $169 million (R2.4 billion) by the end of 2021. In Nigeria, it was expected to grow to $255m by the end of this year, and to $29m in Kenya in the same time frame.

South African consumer spend on fashion and gallantry through PayU’s platform rose by 180 percent between 2019 and 2020, with the average transaction value increasing by $11. In Nigeria, spending in this sector was expected to grow to $2.27bn by the end of 2021, while in Kenya it was expected to reach $504m, a projected 160 percent increase compared to 2019’s results.

E-commerce spending on digital goods in South Africa was projected to grow by 46 percent between 2019 and the end of 2021, reaching $336m in total spending. This has been bolstered significantly by strong growth of 69 percent last year, with people consuming more digital media while spending time at home. In Nigeria, this sector was expected to grow to $811m by the end of this year and to $70m in Kenya being a 94 percent increase on both markets compared to 2019 results.

Online spend on education was also said to have boomed across South Africa in 2020 as people sought to upskill themselves during a prolonged time at home. PayU data showed a year-on-year increase in spending of 67 percent last year with the average transaction value growing by $136 to $404. The majority of the growth was in the third quarter of last year when spending rose 134 percent.

This evolution was said to have seen the emergence of more digitally savvy shoppers with strong demand for globally sourced goods and services in regions where parts of the population had access to increasing disposable income.

These factors made Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa particularly interesting for emerging e-commerce leaders from outside these markets.

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development said e-commerce’s share of global retail trade grew from 14 percent in 2019 to about 17 percent last year.

Content courtesy of IOL & Nairobi fashion hub 

South African Fashion Week Kicks Off

Posted on by Oscar Alochi

South African Fashion Week (SAFW) begins its three-day schedule of shows today, with 28 designers, including LVMH prize finalist Lukhanyo Mdingi and finalists of SAFW’s 2021 new talent search competition, showcasing their collections digitally.

According to Lucilla Booyzen, director of SAFW, the trans-seasonal collections on the schedule were shot at the beginning of April at South Africa’s Mall of Africa and viewers will be able to purchase tickets on the SAFW website to view the collections via streaming platform Quicket.

While the digital format remains a necessity due to continued government restrictions to curb the spread of Covid-19 in South Africa, Booyzen also said broadcasting the shows digitally has the benefit of increasing the platform’s reach beyond South Africa.

This year’s main focus for SAFW is slow fashion, Booyzen told BoF. In practice, this focus takes different forms for different designers, with upcycling and working with natural fabrics like cotton, mohair, and wool being commonly utilised slow fashion tools among those showing at SAFW.

”South African Fashion Week’s goal of facilitating a slow fashion culture steeped in ecological sustainability by 2025 is supported by the majority of designers who are aligned with the platform,” Booyzen said.

This edition of SAFW also features a tribute to Wandi Nzimande, the co-founder of popular streetwear and lifestyle brand Loxion Kulca, who died earlier this year. The Loxion Kulca collection to be shown on the SAFW schedule was designed by House of Ole founder, Ole Ledimo.

Content courtesy of Business Of Fashion & Nairobi fashion hub 

How Viola Davis Won Awards Season with her Colorful Red Carpet Style

Posted on by Fashion Police

In this strangest of awards seasons, Viola Davis was a rare bright spot.

The 55-year-old star, who’s nominated for Best Actress at the 2021 Oscars for her performance in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” has captivated fashion lovers with her parade of colorful red-carpet looks over the past few months, injecting some much-needed joy into a year defined by a global pandemic and a long-overdue reckoning with systemic racism.

To be sure, Davis has long gravitated toward bold, bright hues on the red carpet. Who could forget the red-hot Armani she wore while accepting her Best Supporting Actress statuette for “Fences” at the 2017 Academy Awards, or the bubblegum pink Michael Kors column she chose for the same show the following year?

But, in 2021, the majority of the Juilliard grad’s vibrant-as-ever red-carpet looks were designed not by the usual red-carpet heavy hitters, but lesser-known labels led by creatives of color.

As a result, her outfits from monochromatic marvels by Greta Constantine to a custom peplum confection courtesy of Duro Olowu have made major statements in more ways than one.

“Pretty dresses are, well, everywhere,” Greta Constantine designer Kirk Pickersgill, who created two bold gowns that Davis wore this season, told Page Six Style. “By contrast, dresses that celebrate your strength and empower both you and your tomorrow are far more difficult to come across.”

The designer added that by championing black-owned brands, Davis “has opened the doors for so many of us that have been locked out.”

“There is nothing more beautiful than an individual using their platform to not only look good but also do good,” Pickersgill told us.

Ahead of Sunday’s Oscars, let’s take a look back at Davis’ winning style throughout the season.

Lavie by CK for the Golden Globes

“It’s about feeling good and looking good in your queendom,” Cameroon-born designer Claude Kameni told Page Six Style of the inspiration behind the show-stopping mermaid gown Davis chose for the Golden Globes in February.

Kameni had just one week to complete the puff-sleeved dress from printed African fabric, but the end result, which had her at “a loss for words,” was “definitely worth the all-nighters.”

“We started saying, ‘Viola’s gonna violate this dress,’” the self-taught designer quipped, with a laugh, adding that she hopes to see more A-listers following Davis’ lead when it comes to supporting black fashion talent.

“There’s a whole bunch of talented designers that need their names out there; it shouldn’t just be the same designers all the time,” Kameni said. “Give someone else a spotlight!”

Greta Constantine for the Critics Choice Awards

“After months of panic and fear, we wanted garments that excited us, styles that evoked a sense of hope,” Pickersgill told us of Davis’ ruffle-trimmed cerulean frock. “By producing bright, structural garments, we were looking to bring a smile to the face of both the wearer and the beholder.”

Pickersgill added that seeing the star in her bright blue gown was about “so much more than the fashion. It was about capturing a moment in history that celebrates black creativity in all of its beautiful, challenging, inspiring forms.”

Duro Olowu for the NAACP Image Awards

Appropriately dubbed the “happy dress” by stylist Elizabeth Stewart, this cheery printed peplum frock was a perfect pick for Davis to wear during her double win for “Ma Rainey” and “How To Get Away With Murder” at the NAACP Image Awards in March.

Nigerian-born British designer Olowu has also dressed Michelle Obama, Lupita Nyong’o, and Thandiwe Newton, to name but a few.

Louis Vuitton for the SAG Awards

According to the French fashion house, Davis’ lime green gown took 140 hours of work and 10,000 sequins to complete. The gold and silver embellishments formed a geometric pattern that ran parallel to a pair of zippers down both sides of the strong-shouldered dress, perfectly framing the star’s silhouette at the SAG Awards in early April.

Greta Constantine for the African American Film Critics Association Awards

Davis picked another look from Greta Constantine’s spring 2021 collection this one in ruffled sunny yellow for her last pre-Oscars appearance on the awards circuit when she netted the icon award at the African American Film Critics Association Awards.

“After months in which we had no choice but to take everything seriously, this was one of those garments that would invite you to let your guard down and simply be,” Pickersgill said.

Content courtesy of Page Six & Nairobi fashion hub

 

 

 

Alber Elbaz, Celebrated Fashion Designer, Dies at Age 59 of Coronavirus

Posted on by Fashion Police

Alber Elbaz, the Moroccan-born Israeli fashion designer best known for rejuvenating the Lanvin brand, died in France of COVID-19, according to reports. Israeli media has reported that he died of the South African variant of coronavirus, despite being fully vaccinated. He was 59 years old.

The designer, known for his elegant feminine dresses with visible zippers, first worked with Geoffrey Beene in New York, then with the houses of Guy Laroche and Yves Saint-Laurent in France before his 14-year run at Lanvin. He was controversially dismissed from that position in 2015. In late 2019 he formed his own company, AZ Fashion, and the first collection of its line AZ Fashion debuted this January.

In a New York Times profile, he explained his concept of “Anatoknit,” in which ergonomic lines worked to create tension and release for maximum comfort that took seven months of research and development. He was driven to design something stylish that a woman could wear and “eat a big piece of cake.”

While at Lanvin, Elbaz designed creations worn by many celebrities, including Beyoncé, Lupita Nyong’o, Pharell Williams, Natalie Portman, and Harry Styles, as well as Demi Moore, Nicole Kidman, Catherine Deneuve, Kate Moss, Uma Thurman, Julianne Moore, and Gwyneth Paltrow.

Meryl Streep wore an Elbaz-era Lanvin dress when she accepted her Academy Award in 2012 for The Iron Lady, as did Tilda Swinton when she won for Michael Clayton in 2008. He was also credited as a special costume designer for Portman’s 2015 film A Tale of Love and Darkness.

Elbaz was also known for his good humor, made evident in this quote when asked about the importance of fashion: “Today, I was at Barneys for a couple of hours we had a trunk show. There was this woman I was helping, and she told me at the end of this little rendezvous we had, ‘I am going to be broke, but I am happy.’

I think this is the whole idea of what fashion is going to do today, and I am saying that, when everything is crashing, maybe it’s not a bad idea to invest in a good dress.”

Content courtesy of Vanity Fair & Nairobi fashion hub 

Birimian First Investment Company Dedicated to African Luxury Brands Launches

Posted on by Fashion Tribe Influencer

Birimian, the first operational investment firm dedicated to connecting African luxury and heritage fashion brands with international investors, has launched to accelerate the international emergence of African creators and designer brands.

The aim of Birimian is to support African designers and help them facilitate and accelerate the growth of their businesses regionally and internationally, acting as a bridge between the continent’s entrepreneurs and creative talent, and strategic stakeholders in the international fashion and luxury industries.

https://www.instagram.com/p/COARUWDHn9D/?utm_source=ig_embed

Founded by an all-female executive team, Birimian is led by Laureen Kouassi-Olsson, a seasoned executive in the African financial services and private equity industries, alongside Michelle Kathryn Essomé, the former chief executive officer of the African Private Equity and Venture Capital Association, who will be the chief financial officer and head of investor relations.

In addition, Céline Gainsburg-Rey, who specializes in supporting luxury brands, has been named head of strategy and marketing, while Olufunke Faweya, who has dedicated her career to operations management and international brand expansion, joins as head of brand operations.

Birimian will address the challenges associated with capital, production, and international distribution faced by African designers, explained the investment firm in a statement while establishing an “ecosystem of experts and professionals who specialize in value creation for independent labels and international brands”.

The investment firm will work with brands across the fashion, accessories, beauty, and cosmetics, and gourmet sectors and is launches with four brands that it provided support through a combination of financing and bespoke growth strategy.

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The first brands to join its portfolio are women’s apparel and accessories brand Christie Brown from Ghana, which has been worn by Beyonce and Alicia Keys, Loza Maléombho from the Ivory Coast that bridges traditional African aesthetics and contemporary fashion, womenswear brand Simone et Élise also from the Ivory Coast, and Belgium-based bag brand, Yeba.

New investment firm Birimian places a spotlight on African luxury fashion

Birimian said that it will focus on providing long-term financing of brands in the company’s portfolio, investing between 30,000 and 3 million US dollars in brands and creative enterprises at incubation, acceleration, and growth levels.

Alongside financing, brand consultation and coaching will be offered to ensure business processes and brand identity are in line with each designer’s goals, as well as strengthening of internal control and financial planning processes, and production and distribution capacity through strategic partnerships.

Birimian will implement expansion plans ensuring sustainable growth, both regionally and internationally, with investors tied in for a minimum of five years to ensure long-term support for partner brands, as well as international exposure for creative companies by optimizing the use of digital channels.

Africa’s textile and clothing market is a growth market, with the industry estimated to be worth more than 31 billion US dollars. The continent also accounts for the second-largest number of jobs in developing countries after agriculture.

Commenting on the launch, founder Laureen Kouassi-Olsson said in a statement: “Birimian has been created to champion the exceptional talent and creativity emanating from the continent in order to help it reach the audience it deserves. Our mission is to use a combination of finance, mentoring, and operational support to help our brands gain international exposure, achieve their true potential, placing hence the continent’s cultural heritage on the world stage.

Birimian is a call to action to contribute to the emergence of African heritage brands.

Our unique value proposition relies on the extended ecosystem of experts and key stakeholders from the international fashion and creative scene we will build to support the sustainable growth of our brands and in turn connecting investors and industry enthusiasts with the continent’s finest designer brands and creative entrepreneurs.”

Content courtesy of Fashion United & Nairobi fashion hub 

The Sixth Annual Africa Day Celebrates The Resiliency

Posted on by Oscar Alochi

The Organization of African Students paid homage to various African cultures with a virtual show

The Organization of African Students hosted Africa Day on Friday, April 16 in the Amphitheater an annual event that celebrates the many cultures found on the African continent. Last year, Africa Day was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The performances had been filmed at different locations and were presented on a projector. The performances included dances, fashion, cast member games, an homage to Africa Day 2020, a flag presentation, and a segment that asked what Africa Day meant to students.

The theme of this year’s event was #IFARADA. Ifarada means resiliency in Yoruba a West African language. The theme was influenced by the many African youth movements that have occurred this past year. These movements have sought social and civil rights and have taken to social media to organize and spread their message. Their slogans have been hashtagged and were seen by people all over social media.

Examples include #EndSars in Nigeria, #CongoisBleeding in Congo, #ShutitAllDown in Namibia, and many more.

Jasmine Obule, fourth-year College student and Africa Day creative director, wanted to draw attention to the reliance in the face of such adversity.

“The show is titled #IFARADA to show that throughout it all, the African community has remained resilient, courageous, bold, confident, and strong,” Obule said. “We sought to show through our clothing and our powerful walks how bold and fearless we can be. We showed through our clothing and walks that we are not easily intimidated.”

In deciding whether to put on the show this year, Nma Okafor, fourth-year College student, and OAS president said that the executive board took into account the lack of social interaction and difficult mental health situations that students were facing. Africa Day was needed to provide students a social outlet and a break from reality.

Okafor said the format of the event was changed this year because of the uncertainty of the pandemic. The board decided that they wanted a video show in case they were not able to do anything in person. Due to the switch to a video show, the team had to take on nontraditional roles in addition to their regular roles.

Planning for the event normally starts the summer before, but this year planning began in January. The team met regularly over Zoom to plan and coordinate how they were going to film and produce Africa Day. Okafor said the show was filmed over a month before Africa Day and the filming happened over the course of a weekend.

“Everybody was booked Friday, Saturday, Sunday of that weekend and we were awake from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. some people later than that,” Okafor said.

Okafor explained that organizing this event meant keeping up with a lot of moving parts. The person team was composed of models, photographers Nathaniel Diemer and Omer Gorashi, videographers Raed Gilliam and Demetri Workman, and a make-up team.

“We had to make sure that everyone had a negative COVID-19 test and was quarantining correctly for 14 days prior to filming,” Okafor said. “During filming, we had to make sure we fed everyone for a whole weekend.”

The video format allowed for new ideas to the show but also brought forth many edits.

“We decided that the show would be more interactive if models used the different locations they were provided and brought their creativity to the video while walking and posing in that setting,” Obule said. “We were able to record things multiple times to make sure we were putting out our best work.”

Okafor said the team worked hard to make sure the presentation of their work in the Amphitheater was safe and enjoyable. There were staggered arrival times for the audience and seats were also spread apart.

The night began with a celebration of the recipients of an OAS scholarship and it proceeded with speeches from Okafor and Obule. There was then a presentation of the flags for the 54 countries in Africa.

Afterward, there was a presentation about the theme of this year’s show #IFARADA. Boule explained to the audience what Ifarada meant and why it was chosen. They also highlighted many youth movements for civil rights happening on the continent.

The night continued with the different sections of the show which had their own subtheme.

Fashion was a major part of the show, as demonstrated by the traditional prints the models wore. Okafor said the prints were beautiful, but she wanted to emphasize that a lot of the prints seen in this year’s show are West African prints and not representative of the entire continent. A lot of the prints were transferred from last year’s canceled show. The vibrant prints came from many West African countries. They were worn in both traditional styles and more Western clothing. The prints were vibrant and incorporated red, gold, pink and blue among some of the notable colors.

The prints were not the only reference to Africa Day 2020, the show included a tribute to last year’s Africa Day with a section called “Dear Africa Day 2020.”

In other years the intermissions in the live shows were performances by student singers and rappers, but this year, the intermissions allowed the audience to better know the models. The models played a game where they were shown another model’s baby picture and had to identify the person. Another intermission saw the models describe what Africa Day meant to them in one word. The answers included “family,” “necessary,” “dynamic” and “Umoja”  the Swahili word for unity.

Obule said that Africa Day, while informative and important, can only provide a glimpse into the beauty of African cultures.

“We were able to show a glimpse of Africa, the beauty of our culture, clothing, and people,” Obule said. “However, it’s important to mention that this is not a representation of all of Africa as this is very hard to do in an hour and 10-minute show.”

For those more interested in learning more about Africa, Okafor said that the OAS is eager to help. Africa Day is one of the many events OAS produces to educate people about Africa’s numerous cultures and discredit myths about the continent. Okafor stressed that the organization is open to anyone with an interest in Africa.

“OAS is very inclusive to Africans as well as non-Africans who are interested in learning about the various cultures here that we have to offer,” Okafor said.

More information about OAS can be found on its website www.oasatuva.org.

Content courtesy of  Cavalier Daily & Nairobi fashion hub 

Explore African Culture Right in Metro Detroit

Posted on by Ann Mumbi

Metro Detroit is home to a growing community of Africans from countries all across the continent. Though not as visible as Polish culture in Hamtramck or Arab influences in Dearborn, African cultures abound in metro Detroit, making it easy to sample the richness of the continent right here at home.

Seydi Sarr, a Senegal native and executive director of the African Bureau of Immigration & Social Affairs (ABISA) in Detroit, says the city attracts a steady flow of African immigrants from larger metropolitan areas such as New York and Washington, D.C., who come here to settle down, raise families, and establish businesses. As of 2000, there were nearly 17,000 African-born people in Michigan. By 2016 that number had risen nearly 63 percent to a little over 27,000, according to the U.S. Census.

More than half of the state’s African-born population at that time lived in the Detroit-Warren-Dearborn area. They represent a diverse mixture of people who hail from Senegal, Guinea, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Togo, Cameroon, the Ivory Coast, and elsewhere, says Zaini Itito, a Togo native who serves as shelter and client services manager at the nonprofit Freedom House Detroit, a temporary home for asylum seekers.

“It’s definitely diverse because you have Senegalese, you have Gambian, you have the Ivory Coast, you have Benin, you have Togo, you have Mali, you have Nigeria, you have Uganda … you have Burundi in here. It’s very, very diverse,” Sarr says of African influences in the region.

There are plenty of ways to experience the diversity of African culture right here in metro Detroit if you know where to look.

Don’t Miss 

A great place to start is with a trip to Dabls Mbad African Bead Museum. Museum owner, curator, and visual storyteller Olayami Dabls began collecting African beads in the ’80s. He opened his museum in 2002 on an entire city block in Detroit with the goal of connecting the local community to African history and material culture, free from the constructs of European museums. The walls of the bead gallery and shop are covered from ceiling to floor in hand-carved bone, glass, brass, and ceramic beads from all around the continent. The campus also includes 18 outdoor mosaic and mural installations, including the “N’kisi House” and the “African Language Wall,” which features 25 of the continent’s languages painted in multiple colors.

The African World Festival is a highly anticipated annual event in Detroit. During a three-day weekend each August, the festival brings live music and dance performances, art, clothing, more than 200 authentic African and Caribbean food vendors, and more to crowds that surpass 125,000 in non-pandemic years. The event has been held at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History for the past decade, but it’s scheduled to return to its original home base, Hart Plaza, from Aug. 22 to 24 this year.

At the Detroit Institute of Arts, local historian Jamon Jordan guides guests through the museum’s ancient Egyptian and African exhibits as part of the Royal African Tour. ABISA’s Sarr, meanwhile, teaches West African dance classes at the N’Namdi Center for Contemporary Art’s Movement Center.

The Real Deal

Several shops with authentic African apparel and accessories line the Livernois Avenue of Fashion in Detroit. Love Travels. Imports. offers handcrafted artisan goods created by makers in South Africa, Guatemala, Peru, and Haiti, including apparel, accessories, textiles, and body products. The shop is a culmination of owner Yvette Jenkins’ travels to those places. Nearby Akoma is an art gallery, shop, and co-op space for local women artists and makers, featuring African textiles including indigo-dyed cotton and hand-dyed mud cloth from Mali. Other notable shops on the avenue include African Fabrics & Fashion and Prisca’s African Fashion for Less.

Sarr recommends a visit to Detroit’s Djenne Beads and Art, owned by Mali native Mahamadou Sumareh, for African beads, perfumes, shea butter, and clothing. Also worth a visit is Sun’s Crystal and Bead Supply, which stocks a selection of brass, carnelian, coconut heishi beads, and more. Zarkpa’s, owned by Liberia native Tracy Garley, offers vibrant tops, dashikis, skirts, dresses, masks, and headwraps handmade with
fabrics from Ghana, Nigeria, and Liberia.

At African Fashions by Classic Expressions in Oak Park, Nigeria native and designer Yemisi Bamisaye designs ready-to-wear garments and custom pieces with fabrics from Nigeria, Angola, Ghana, and Cote d’Ivoire. Stereos International Boutique in Detroit is internationally known for its geles, a traditional Nigerian head wrap.

For more products with African roots, check out Diop, a “diaspora-inspired streetwear” brand founded by first-generation American Mapate Diop. The brand’s vibrant apparel and accessories are made of Ankara fabric, a material that Diop’s mother brought home after visiting her native Nigeria that inspired Diop to start his business. And Chinyone Akunne’s beauty brand Ilera Apothecary features collections of plant-based, ethically sourced cleansers, moisturizers, and body butter influenced by Akunne’s Nigerian roots.

Detroit’s west side is also home to many grocers Darou Salam African Market, African Village Market, Family African Market, and United African Market among them that sell African foods, herbs, organic products, oils, butter, cosmetics, and similar products.

Tastes

Authentic African fare is plentiful in metro Detroit. At Maty’s African Cuisine, chef Amady Guere whips up Senegalese dishes such as chicken yassa; deep-fried fataya pastries; and maafe, a West African stew. Located in Detroit’s Old Redford neighborhood, the restaurant is the first of its kind in the city. KG’s African American Grill in Garden City also serves traditional Senegalese fare, including various takes on the national dish, thiéboudienne, along with burgers, chicken sandwiches, and other American classics.

Afro-Caribbean eatery YumVillage, founded by chef Godwin Ihentuge, specializes in Hot Bowls filled with flavorful proteins, rice, and veggies including mango curry chicken, guava Tahini chicken, lemon pepper jerk chicken, jollof, coconut or turmeric rice, and spicy plantains. Not far from YumVillage in Detroit’s New Center neighborhood is Baobab Fare, a highly anticipated East African restaurant founded by the husband-wife duo and Burundi natives Nadia Nijimbere and Hamissi Mamba. This, the area’s newest African dining spot, opened in mid-February.

Kola Restaurant & Ultra Lounge in Farmington Hills offers Afro-Caribbean eats paired with live Afrobeat, reggae, and jazz music performances as well as comedy and dance shows. The Blue Nile in Ferndale and Ann Arbor and Taste of Ethiopia in Southfield offer Ethiopian meat and vegetarian dishes. Other spots to check out include Detroit’s Kalahari African Cuisine and the Fork in Nigeria food truck, which offers flavorful dishes rooted in chef-owner Prej Iroebgu’s native Nigeria.

Did You Know?

Afrobeat is a genre that combines elements of West African music such as Nigerian fuji music, traditional Yoruba music, and Ghanaian highlife with American jazz and funk. The Odu Afrobeat Orchestra, a Detroit-based, 15-piece ensemble, is one notable example of local Afrobeat talent.

A legendary Afrobeat performance was recorded live at the Fox Theatre in 1986. The late Fela Kuti a Nigerian multi-instrumentalist and activist regarded as the pioneer of Afrobeat performed there less than a year after he was released from his 20-month imprisonment in Nigeria. The four-song set lasted nearly two and a half hours and was released as the album Live in D. 

Content courtesy of Hour Detriot & Nairobi fashion hub 

Uganda Celebrity Stylist Abryanz Launches New Fashion Collection as He Celebrates 10 years in Fashion Industry

Posted on by Oscar Alochi

Fashion guru Bryan Ahumuza aka Abryanz from Uganda has launched a new fashion collection dubbed ‘When No One Is Watching’ to celebrate 10 years in the fashion and style industry.

Abryanz has put a mark on Uganda’s fashion industry especially through his Abryanz Style and Fashion Awards (ASFAs) event which happens annually, and now he has decided to introduce a new fashion line as he celebrates 10 years in the industry.

According to Abryanz, his latest fashion invention has a combination of passion, zeal, and love that he has for creating excellence.

“The rebirth of the brand’s look and feel enhances the apparel space that the brand wishes to reach and is led by the concept of merchandise drops. This will use themes of inclusion and diversity of the community in both an ergonomic and socially inclined mandate,”

“Rather than just a fast fashion brand with no message, this newfound proposition will inspire patriotism of its identity and honest representation of its sense of belonging,” he noted

He adds that this new collection will give a true sense of rigid life in a fast-paced life of youths and a feeling of being young at heart.

“Natural awkwardness of the abnormally joyful youth who cultivate everything alternative and truly influence a shift in culture at every point of advancement.” He said.

This new collection will offer styles in staple essentials ranging from unisex tracksuits, branded t-shirts showing off the new brand logos, caps, underwear for both male and female, and high-end fashion eyewear.

About Abryanz Shop

The year is 2010, and the fashion community in Uganda is at its inaugural stages, and at one of the most significant points in its growth. During the same year, the now renowned Abryanz brand was birthed.

Abryanz’s 11-year span in the business has been quite an eventful, but fulfilling journey that has seen our portfolio grow from fashion, entertainment to the hospitality business, their approach Right from its foundation, The Abryanz brand set out to create a world-class service/product tailored for the modern and fashion-conscious consumer.

Abryanz’s approach is to have class and exquisite taste at the forefront of many of our products, giving our clientele a once-in-a-lifetime and unforgettable experience.

Whether it’s a piece of clothing from our men’s apparel or the hospitality at any of our events, we strive to ensure that our guests/clients receive a world-class product from our brand.

They thrive on our creativity and flexibility, a trait that enables us to cater to any of our clients that come our way.

Content courtesy of  WatchDog Uganda & Nairobi fashion hub 

Pan-African Influenced Lifestyle Brand The Malaika Collective Launches Crowdfunding Campaign on iFundWomen

Posted on by Fashion Police

The demand for a premium apparel brand that celebrates the culture, style, and community of the Pan-African diaspora is tremendous. The Malaika Collective has stepped up to answer the call.

The African diaspora radiates beauty, reality, and undoubted resilience. Not surprisingly, all of these qualities, and more, have made their way into the style of apparel embraced by African people no matter where they live worldwide. In exciting news, a new lifestyle brand is celebrating this magic to help empower and inspire the fashion and community conscious, while also encouraging communication and networking.

Enter The Malaika Collective. The Malaika Collective is a new brand aimed at creating a multicultural home for Black and Brown people from all parts of the African diaspora and their friends and allies alike. As a collective, the brand’s apparel pays homage both to the traditional homelands where the diaspora finds its origins, as well as of the new countries and fresh beginnings that promise so much for the future. Currently, The Malaika Collective is running an exciting crowdfunding campaign on iFundWomen to help bring its first collections to market. All are encouraged to show support.

“The Malaika Collective is a culmination of a five-year venture of innovative storytelling through fashion, media, and education,” commented founder Rita Bunatal. “I found inspiration and empowerment through my Ghanaian and Kenyan heritage. We have seen success with our early, sold-out, t-shirts. And now we look forward to taking things to the next level and having a positive impact on fashion and the world.”

Beyond simply an apparel effort, The Malaika Collective has much larger plans that are emerging to help empower the community. A key part of this is scheduled for Summer 2022 when The Malaika Collective will launch its first flagship location in Brooklyn. This space will double as a retail store, as well as being an immersive, membership-based innovation hub for Black creators and entrepreneurs.

Planned highlights of the sure-to-be exciting location will include interactive educational walls, a kitchen that prepares Afro-fusion-inspired dishes, and a co-working + co-creation space along with a separate event space to host events celebrating the heart, culture, and traditions of both Brooklyn and the pan-African diaspora. The co-creation space will be available to the members of The Malaika Collective community.

The iFundWomen campaign will help make all of this, and much more, a reality.

A number of different perks are available depending on donation size related to the iFundWomen campaign. The iFundWomen Malaika Collective page also goes into great detail about recent activities from the collective and its recent challenges faced, including the last year in the face of Covid-19.

Support the Malaika Collective crowdfunding campaign here. Be sure to visit the official website at https://www.malaikaapparel.com.

Content courtesy of PR Underground & Nairobi fashion hub 

World Fashion is Embracing New Kente Fabric Trend from Africa

Posted on by Fashion Police

A 15-minute exclusive show revealing the 2021 autumn-winter men’s collection from Louis Vuitton. Shown via a video shared on YouTube in particular, the collection is composed of several original styles but some of them drew more attention. These were the designs in Kente, which have very rapidly become the subject of debate on Twitter. On the internet, there are two opposing camps: those who praise the creative genius of Virgil Abloh, the artistic director of men’s fashion at Louis Vuitton, and those who criticize the appropriation of Ghanaian culture by Louis Vuitton.

“Virgil Abloh comes from Ghana and he is also the artistic director of a major clothing brand, so the use of Kente permits him to make reference to his own African origins. I think it’s entirely legitimate to use a fabric that belongs to his culture, to his African identity. I think it’s important that Virgil Abloh is doing this to introduce our culture into this pantheon of international fashion”, explains Aristide Loua, the founder of the Ivorian Kente Gentleman brand.

However, the controversy is nothing compared with the popularity that these items of clothing are enjoying. It leaves room for the real subject: fashion beyond borders. The ultimate accolade for the designer is that one of his items in Kente is being worn by the Afro-American poet and new sensation Amanda Gorman on the cover of the May edition of the very powerful Vogue US.

One year before, Kente was worn by members of the American Congress to denounce racism in American society following the murder of George Floyd by a white policeman. For Afro-Americans, Kente is a symbol of their “African identity”.

But what is Kente and why is this fabric creating such a stir? To understand the symbolic and cultural value of Kente, also known as Kita, you have to go a long way … To travel about 6,000 km from France, to Ghana and Ivory Coast! It’s there that the story of this pagne began among the Akan and Kru people, for whom Kente symbolizes power and nobility.

This is a fabric once worn by the bourgeoisie at grand ceremonies. It’s usually men who weave Kente, mixing several threads of silk and cotton of different colors. Methods of weaving vary from one region to another. Take care when choosing Kente. The colors are significant! Yellow stands for money and wealth, green for prudence and white represents peace and purity.

“Traditional pagnes are seen as those that are only worn at traditional ceremonies or events. It is precisely this assertion that I reject with my brand by offering modern clothing made with our traditional pagnes”, confides Marthe N’Guessan, the founder of the Céchémoi brand.

It’s our identity, it’s our culture and we owe it to ourselves to promote and make the most of it now by offering modern clothing with these traditional fabrics. Céchémoi has existed for almost four years and today I can say that fashion is changing, demand for clothing made with traditional pagnes is strong and we can only be glad about that”.

Kente, an emblem of the local culture?

“We are continuing to promote it since one of our aims is for public administrators and even their agents and official representatives of the country to wear this clothing in service,” explains Marthe N’Guessan. This is a goal that might be realized in Ghana well before Ivory Coast.

In August 2020 the Ghanaian government announced the creation of a Kente handicraft village so as to boost production of this fabric and so as to better serve the local and international markets too. This project, managed by the Royal Kente Weavers and Sellers Association, is still in progress.

An ambitious initiative that recalls the one set up in Burkina Faso in 2019. The Faso Dan Fani (“traditional national woven pagne” in the Dyula language), a traditional Burkinabe pagne, was labelled by the Minister of Commerce and Handicraft. This is one way for the country to exploit this fabric made from 100 percent cotton and at the same time to combat counterfeits and to also better control a market that brings in over 50 billion CFA Francs (or over 76 million Euros) a year.

Content courtesy of Fashion United & Nairobi fashion hub 

Fabric and Flux, What’s next for Thebe Magugu?

Posted on by Fashion Tribe Influencer

The 2019 LVMH Prize winner Thebe Magugu is not one to rest on his laurels. For his latest collection, experimental textile collaborations might just see him continue his groundbreaking streak.

When fashion designer Thebe Magugu started working on the central print for his autumn/winter 2021 collection, Alchemy, the question “what’s next?” was on his mind, and he called on recently initiated sangoma and fashion stylist Noentla Khumalo to throw the bones, as it were, in search of the answer. “She came to the studio and she laid out her mat and she threw her bones with the question, ‘what’s next?’ I think we’re all very curious about what’s next; I think things have been so much in flux that we’re all actually just yearning for a bit more clarity,” explains Magugu.

Once she had thrown the bones, shells, crystals, and other objects, Magugu asked her not to tell him the answer: “I told her I would rather not know, I’d rather let it be up to the wearer if that makes sense. I want whoever purchases this garment… I want them to sort of draw that conclusion on their own just from the image and the feeling that they get from the garment.”

Instead, the designer photographed the objects the sangoma threw on the mat and got to work playing around with the elements, making some bigger, some smaller, and tweaking the colors. “I’m [interested] in the changing [attitudes] towards African spirituality, and the idea of ukuthwasa,” says Magugu, referring to the process through which sangomas receive their calling and training.

“Among the youth, it wasn’t really something that was spoken about like it was this strange sort of secret shame; but I feel like the stigma around ukuthwasa is sort of breaking down as people embrace it a bit more. And I knew I wanted to have a headlining print that sort of spoke to this idea. And if I’m doing African spirituality, I needed to collaborate with traditional healers, a sangoma, to authentically contribute to the collection,” he explains.

This infusion of culture, a South African narrative, and an innovative approach to textiles is a big part of what led the designer to win the LVMH prize in 2019 over thousands of young designers from across the globe, and becoming the first entrant from Africa to win the prize, as well as launching his career to international acclaim and media coverage by some of the most respected fashion media publications.

“I still struggle to speak about it a lot of the time, because of the way my life has been… I feel like a lot of the things that are happening weren’t meant for me, if that makes sense. Because there was just so much lack in terms of resources and opportunity. My mom worked incredibly hard, but even so… Over the years, you sort of taking away the big dream and you start thinking about the practical…

The past two years have almost been like an extreme rejection of that, and it took a bit of time to get used to it. It’s all these sorts of things that I dreamt of as a teenager, but as I grew up, I started thinking that’s obviously not meant for me. The paradigm shift to change that mentality has actually been weird and sort of challenging. I am just so… I’m so thankful,” says Magugu.

Indeed, the past couple of years have brought him moments young designers around the world can only dream of. Most recently, a dress from one of his previous collections was acquired by the Met for its permanent collection. “There’s also dissociation, and I find that I feel it sometimes, like when I got the email from the Met or when I got an email from Vogue editor-in-chief  Anna Wintour, it’s almost as if this is happening to someone else and I’m responding for them. It’s crazy, but that’s exactly what it is. But also, that being said, I appreciate that sort of dissonance because I think it’s so dangerous when people overly tie the success of their business or brand or company to their actual identity,” reflects Magugu.

The Thebe Magugu brand now gets to show at Paris Fashion Week on the official schedule, and his collections are sold at stockists around the world including China, Nigeria, Japan, New York, Italy, Spain, London, and France. However, even as his business grows, Magugu says he is particularly proud to find that when it comes to online sales, the brand has significantly grown its South African following: “The wholesale side of my business is more international facing, but my online store is approximately 85% local, which is incredible, it’s really incredible.”

The collaborative print with Noentla is one of six looks from the Alchemy collection that the designer has entered into yet another prestigious fashion design competition, the International Woolmark Prize. He has already made it to the group of the top-six finalists, and the collection is being judged by supermodel Naomi Campbell and other leading names in global fashion media. Inputting together the other looks, he has continued to collaborate with various artisans in innovative ways.

One such collaboration included burying wool underground for a few weeks. Says Magugu: “I worked with an eco-textile maker in Ladysmith, her name is Larisa Don. For some strange reason, I am quite a big fan of corrugated iron as a motif. I keep on going back to the idea of corrugated iron. In past collections, I’ve had corrugated iron as a print, but with this one, we wanted to revisit it in a more experimental way.

We took white merino wool and sandwiched it between two sheets of corrugated iron, and then we sort of [buried it underground] and let that rust over a few weeks. Then we uncovered, washed, and treated it so that it’s a wearable fabric and comfortable. It came out so beautiful, in all these oranges and browns.”

For another print, Magugu and Don took the imphepho plant, largely believed to chase away bad spirits and to facilitate communication with one’s ancestors, as well as cannabis leaves and “flower-pounded” them onto textiles, a technique of using heat, pressure, and chemicals to transfer the color and shape of the flowers directly onto fabric. For another, he worked with a company in the Netherlands to translate African scarification practices onto textile as a proverb written in Braille.

“It was for the proverb that says, ‘what you do for your ancestors, your children will do unto you. I’ve always loved that quote; so the scarification on the back of the jacket also doubles as Braille for that,” says Magugu. For yet another textile development he collaborated with the revered Japanese textile maker Adachi San, “he made the fabric by hand… he does it on a loom; it’s this black wool fabric with white pinstripes peppered with these rayon pom poms onto the surface of the fabric.”

As for “what’s next?”, the designer is happy not knowing what Noentla divined from the bones. With his team and collaborators, he is putting in the work and creating the future; building the business, as well as finalizing new textile developments that will be part of the Alchemy collection, which will soon be judged for the Woolmark Prize, which, if he wins, will be another first for South African fashion design. DM/ML

Content courtesy of Daily Maverick & Nairobi fashion hub  

 

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