Fashion: Africa in tune with the world

African influences are reflected in the collections of luxury homes, from Gucci to Burburry, to the giants of fast fashion such as H & M and Zara. "Africa has an important artistic place in the fashion industry, we see more and more styles inspired by African culture in parades," says Paige Kalongi, organizer of Kinshasa Fashion Week. Like the streetwear brand Supreme and its "Obama Anorak", a nod to the pagnes with the effigy of the African presidents. However, the risk of being accused of cultural appropriation is never far away, such as Stella McCartney and her spring-summer 2018 silhouettes in wax. "Today, we have an image of African fashion very colorful with a lot of prints, while there is a real richness in the African heritage," says stylist Imane Ayissi who regularly back and forth between France and Africa. This global appetite for African fashion has led to a proliferation of labels from the continent and the Diaspora, such as the French Maison Château Rouge and the Dutch Daily Paper, which develop an Afro-Pacific vision of fashion.

Final of the Parade of the Talents of the Creators 2018 in Yaoundé, the artistic director of the event Imane Ayissi made the show with the models.
© Emily Pinna

This creative African flourishes surfing globalization thanks to the networks and become internationally visible, such as Maki Oh's Amake Osakwe or Duro Olowu who sign celebrity-worn collections from Beyonce to Michelle Obama. Despite government authorities and investors withdrawing, the African fashion industry is structured with many fashion weeks, from Dakar to Johannesburg via Lagos. For the initiators of these events, the path is full of pitfalls, between the search for reliable partners and the mobilization of logistical and financial means. This did not prevent Yves Eya'a from returning to Yaoundé, after living in France for some fifteen years, to launch in 2009 the Forum of the professions of fashion and design and the following year the Center of the creators of Cameroon mode: "I was aware of the delay in Cameroon in this sector. We are a support structure that professionalizes the approach of young designers by addressing all aspects of business management. Most dream of selling in Europe while there is first a local market to satisfy.

The gamble of an entrepreneurial generation facing African realities

On the continent, the excitement around fashion for a decade offers opportunities to those who know how to seize it. For example the stylist Doreen Mashika, after working in Switzerland in the luxury industry, lives today in Zanzibar. As for Sarah Diouf, founder of the magazine Ghubar et Noir she went to Dakar to launch the Tongoro label and her creative agency IfrenStudios. Another success story, that of Maureen Ayité, founder of Nanawax, label present in Abidjan, Brazzaville, Cotonou, Dakar and Lomé. Born in Benin and arrived in France for her higher studies in languages, she opened a Facebook group on the African fabric in 2008. Faced with success, she returned to Cotonou in 2012 to develop her brand because in Europe the costs are too high while in Asia the quantities demanded are far too large. "I do not know how to draw or sew, but I always saw myself as an entrepreneur. Today it works so well that the craftsmen can not follow the production.

In the middle Sarah Diouf during the last Cape Town Fashion Week
© African Fashion International

Another passionate fashion, the young Aminata Ndiaye, creator of Ikhaya Mossy, decided in 2017 to close everything in France despite her diploma from a large business school: "I quickly realized that my happiness did not reside in my salary as a consultant but rather in my daily achievements", she analyzes, continuing: "I left my job and started the process for a new life in South Africa by taking my sister. I invested all my savings in an association of people with disabilities making jewelry that would close to make a social enterprise. "Thanks to the Internet, their traditional pearl creations are sold worldwide from Cape Town.

Exactly like the African brand of sneakers Sawa, co-founded in 2009 by Mehdi Slimani, sold from the United States to Korea. Graduated from a business school, Mehdi Slimani wanted, after a decade in finance and marketing, to launch an African project: "I am a Kabyle from Algeria. Everyone says that Africa is the future, but for us it's the present! The raw material is bought and processed on the continent to ensure that all added value remains in Africa. The adventure started in Cameroon, Sawa being the name of a coastal tribe. Endemic corruption, however, is pushing Mehdi Slimani to relocate successfully in Ethiopia: "We note that Ethiopians are more mobilized to buy Made in Africa products than Francophones. "

The decisive role of the Internet for the development of African fashion

According to a study by Mckinsey, Africans could spend more than 60 billion euros online in 2025 and access to the Internet via a mobile phone subscription is expected to reach 41% of the African population in 2020. So, e-commerce platforms have embarked on 100% African lifestyle and luxury as in New York with Oxosi by Akin Adebowale and Kolade Adeyemo or Onchek by Chekwas Okafor. The latter also notes that "African-Americans are enthusiastic about supporting African brands and there are also consumers interested in ethical and sustainable fashion". Parisian side emerged HâpyFace Suzanne Magne-Atangana, Lago54 Emmanuelle Courreges or Moonlook Nelly Wandji, who also launched last year its concept store in the capital: "After my experience in watchmaking and jewelry, I wanted to promote Africa without distortions or shortcuts with this address close to the Elysee Palace. As a sign of change on the continent, Western brands are no longer content with production chains like H & M in Ethiopia and Kenya but are starting to open franchises like Zara, Mango or Asos. In the footsteps of Lagos, with its prestigious concept store Alara and its multi-brand luxury Temple Muse, the largest in Africa, trendy shops are emerging in capitals.

Based in Dakar, Adama Ndiaye, founder of eponymous label in 2001 and Dakar Fashion Week in 2002, is the illustration of this uninhibited generation: "It was out of the question for my parents that I do a fashion school! So I studied economics. Unlike many stylists, I first created my company and to continue to produce, I first had to go to Morocco and China before returning to Senegal. Let's bet that all those creative people who have left to try their luck in Africa may one day, like Adama Paris, say: "I have an incredible chance to live my dream. "