sign in sign up
<<
Home , Agbada, Chris Seydou, Joseph (fashion brand), Katoucha Niane, Oumou Sy, Pat Cleveland

NEW AFRICAN

NAF_180411.indb 1 10.08.11 14:05 2 HELEN JENNINGS

NEW AFRICAN FASHION

NAF_180411.indb 2 10.08.11 14:05 Introduction 3 10.08.11 14:05 PRESTEL • New • York Munich NAF_180411.indb 3 CONTENTS

NAF_180411.indb 4 10.08.11 14:05 FOREWORD by Iké Udé 6 FACES 172 Kinée Diouf Super 174 INTRODUCTION 8 Alek Wek Model Citizen 178 Under cover Agents Candice Swanepoel, Behati Prinsloo and Heidi Verster 182 Armando Cabral Sole Man 184 FASHION 18 Flaviana Matata Class Act 188 Duro Olowu Prints Charming 20 Nana Keita Beauty 190 Xuly Bët Recycling Pioneer 26 The Harlem Boys Ger Duany, Salieu Jalloh Mimi Plange Afro-disiac 30 and Sy Allasane 192 Casely-Hayford Two of a Kind 32 Faces of Africa Oluchi Onweagba, FAFA Destination Nairobi 38 Kate Tachie-Menson and Lukundo Nalungwe 196 Gloria Wavamunno Loud Speaker 42 David Agbodji Man About Town 200 Amine Bendriouich Medina Maverick 44 Georgie Baddiel Girl 202 Maki Oh The Thinker 46 Ty Ogunkoya Bright Eyes 206 Eric Raisina Spiritual Explorer 52 Ataui Deng & Ajak Deng Fabulous Two 208 Omer Asim & Maya Antoun Great Minds 56 Ozwald Boateng Couturier 58 Mataano Sisters in Style 64 ART 212 Lanre Da Silva Ajayi Silver Siren 68 Karl-Edwin Guerre Fine Dandy 214 Black Coffee Bastion of Bauhaus 70 Hassan Hajjaj Arabian Knight 220 Momo Renaissance Woman 76 Chris Saunders Happy Snapper 226 Bunmi Koko Power Couple 80 Nkwo Bird of Paradise 82 Stiaan Louw (Un)traditionalist 84 Loin Cloth & Ashes Daydreamer 90 GLOSSARY Tsemaye Binitie Glamazon 94 Tiffany Amber Cruise Controller 96 & FURTHER READING 234 Buki Akib Quintessential Nigerian 102 Bridget Awosika City Slicker 106 INDEX 236 Accessories Alex Folzi, Kwame Brako, Anita Quansah, Albertus Swanepoel, Free Peoples Rebellion 108 CONTACTS 238 David Tlale Hot Ticket 114 Ré Bahia Mummy’s Girl 118 PICTURES CREDITS 239 Jewel by Lisa Star Bright 120 Emeka Alams Slave to the Rhythm 126 Suzaan Heyns Fashion’s Frankenstein 130 Deola Sagoe Queen Bee 132 A. Sauvage Costumier 138 Thula Sindi Straight Talker 142 LaLesso Beach Babes 144 Ituen Basi Las Gidi Londoner 146 Samantha Cole London Goddess of Darkness 152 Heni New Romantic 156 Bestow Elan Karma Chameleon 158 Angelo Van Mol Antwerp One 160 Christie Brown Lady Grace 164 Pierre-Antoine Vettorello Firestarter 166 KLûK CGDT Best Men 168

NAF_180411.indb 5 10.08.11 14:05 6

by Iké Udé FOREWORD

NAF_180411.indb 6 10.08.11 14:05 In 1907 the storied, iconic oracle of iridescent effects, while fastidiously modern art, Pablo Diego José Francisco indulging his Ashanti/Ghanaian de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de disposition for bold, marvellous colours los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima in the lining of the . Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso, simply known Amaka Osakwe of Maki Oh is quite as Picasso, had an ‘African moment’. the darling and inventive maverick. It was his very fi rst encounter with There is in her work a clear gift of . The sublimely grotesque craftsmanship, sympathy for African masks, nail-studded fetishes, scar- sartorial classics, the impishness of cheeked idols and distorted/disfi gured the coquette, the insouciance of Fela’s human representations he saw were ‘Shakara’ and a wonderfully infectious like nothing he’d ever witnessed or ‘girls-just-wanna-have-fun attitude’. learned about in or the East. Thanks to Maki Oh, African girls, and This shocking encounter arrested his increasingly their counterparts abroad, imagination. Soon after, he began are having such fun wearing her clothes. and fi nished work on Les Demoiselles Lawyer turned designer Duro d’Avignon. This masterpiece marked Olowu’s prodigious, promiscuous a paradigm shift, a tabula rasa for a appetite for and command of patterns radically new kind of modernism with and colours fondly echoes Henri Matisse, an African foundation! a Picasso contemporary who had his In fashion, a bevy of designers from ‘African moment’, too. Yves Saint Laurent, Junya Watanabe, The idiosyncratic, charming Adrien Ralph Lauren, and John Sauvage is perhaps one of the wittiest Galliano to Alexander McQueen, designers working now, and surely a Comme des Garçons and Jean Paul beacon of hope for loads of men who Gaultier have all quoted African art in are sartorially challenged. part or in toto. Evidently, African art To be sure, the general Cubistic or African fashion is not new – quite approach and detail-obsessed the contrary. What is relatively new on construction evident in the work of the global stage are African artists and South Africa’s Black Coffee label, fashion designers deservedly operating designed by Jacques van der Watt, with a creative autonomy that has not winningly quotes Picasso’s African been seen before. period with piquant poeticisms. It was in 1907, Picasso admitted to the Enter the new or not-so-new African venerable French writer André Malraux, designers: that he was so utterly stunned by his encounter with African art that he kept Xuly Bët by Lamine Badian Kouyaté repeating the words ‘shock’, ‘revelation’, came to public attention in the early ’force’ and ‘charge’. Collectively, the 1990s and shook the fashion world with varied superb talents of designers his seemingly Dada/punk attitude that, ranging from the veterans Joe Casely- as it turned out, was culturally astute, Hayford and Eric Raisina to new talents economically informed and a seminal Gloria Wavamunno, Mataano, Pierre- fashion moment. Xuly Bët’s genius Antoine Vettorello and Stiaan Louw Iké Udé was born in and moved wasn’t just that he recycled second- are all by various degrees inevitably to the US in the 1980s. He lives and hands but that, like an excellent artist, holding sway on a global scale – for works in . His artwork he transformed what he found – one good. Consequently, as happened to is in the permanent collections of of the core lessons that Picasso learned Picasso aeons ago, the fashion world is the Solomon Guggenheim Museum, from African art – to transform rather increasingly having its ‘African moment’ New York, the Smithsonian National than transcribe. in this new millennium. Museum, Washington DC, and numerous The princely arbiter elegantiarum Helen Jennings’s book, New African private collections. Udé is the founder Ozwald Boateng is well noted to have Fashion – a fi rst of its kind – frames and publisher of aRUDE magazine, a alighted on Savile Row and peeled this momentous, fl owering movement quarterly devoted to art, culture, style several layers of stodginess off the beautifully and prefi gures that and fashion. He is the author of Style File: traditional home of bespoke tailoring. inevitability, the ‘African moment’. Hers The World’s Most Elegantly Dressed,

With an aesthete’s eye for suppleness is an immeasurably overdue, much- a comprehensive monograph recently Foreword of syntax, he infused his fi tted , by needed book and utterly to the point! To released by HarperCollins. A style icon, he turns, with whispery hues or shades all these protean, magnifi cently inspired was selected as one of Vanity Fair’s 2009 of purple, green, red and at times with designers, I say chapeau and keep at it! International Best Dressed Originals. 7

NAF_180411.indb 7 10.08.11 14:05 8 Africa is fashion’s new frontier. Having Woman’s starch-resist been sidelined by mainstream fashion eleko cloth, c. 1960, Yoruba, for over half a century as little more Nigeria than a source of aesthetic inspiration, the continent’s home-grown industry is now showing the world how African fashion is really done. Today’s generation of talented designers and image-makers are riding the broader wave of interest in Africa’s renaissance and attracting an international clientele by balancing contemporary fashion’s pursuit of the new with an appreciation of the ideals of beauty and that are deeply rooted in Africa’s cultural and social consciousness. This new guard, which includes labels and designers such as Lagos’s Jewel by Lisa, Johannesburg’s Black Coffee, Accra’s Christie Brown, London’s Duro Olowu and New York’s Mataano, is creating the most exciting and original chapter in fashion’s discourse since Japan emerged as a major player in the 1980s, and helping to give African style its moment in the sun. The history of fashion in Africa is one of constant exchange and appropriation, The earliest wearable African artefacts identity, method of communication and a complex though ill-documented originate from Egypt, Nigeria, Cameroon spiritual protection. Raffi a, bark, woven, journey with different infl uences coming and Sierra Leone, with some evidence wax-printed and tie and dye varieties into play across time and place. Contrary dating back to 2000 BC and beyond. The abound. Nigerian adire, for example, is to the accepted view of African traditions practice of draping a single uncut length a resist-dyed indigo cloth developed by as monolithic and unchanging, the of cloth around the body formed the Yoruba women in the 1800s. There are evolution of practices and sartorial foundation of African dress. Arabian and over 400 recognisable patterns, which acumen confi rms fashion’s role as a Berber trade routes helped spread loom- are either hand-painted or stencilled potent visual expression of a continent spun technologies across Africa onto the cloth before it is repeatedly in constant fl ux. African aesthetics have and from the 16th century onward, immersed in the seductively deep- travailed through empires, confl icts, European travellers documented the blue dye. Each symbol has an accepted slavery, migration, globalisation and changing tastes in fabrics, and meaning, giving a voice to the fabric urbanisation to cater to new contexts and other fi nery. In his 1874 book The Heart and its wearer. Nigerian textile artist markets. Body adornment – including of Africa, Russian botanist Dr Georg Nike Davies Okundaye teaches adire- and accessories, tattoos, Schweinfurth wrote of the east African making as a means of self-empowerment scarifi cation, body painting and coiffures Dinka tribe: ‘Heavy rings load their for women and emerging designer – has therefore fulfi lled manifold roles. wrists and ankles, clank and resound Maki Oh contemporises it for a modern Serving as basic protection as well as like the fetters of slaves. Free from any audience. a signifi er of status, ambitions, beliefs domination … They are not free from Indigenous fabrics have survived and and ethnic group, it becomes a second the fetters of fashion.’ The Venetian adapted to the introduction of cheaper skin that gives the individual safe glass bead trade in was industrially made products and imports passage through the pageantry and also certainly subject to the vagaries of of luxury fabrics including , , alsoceremonies that mark each stage fashion, with salesmen having to keep up and . In the late 19th of life. It also exposes a dedication to with local tastes. century Dutch textile manufactures looking à la mode regardless of one’s Cloth has acted as currency, gift, entered the market with a product that means or circumstances. dowry, symbol of power, artisanal mimicked Asian fabrics. INTRODUCTION

NAF_180411.indb 8 10.08.11 14:05 It was originally aimed at consumers fabric of the poor, it has become the Missionaries also helped to teach in the Dutch East Indies (present-day exemplar African fabric and having tailoring skills and in studios across Indonesia), but proved more popular made it onto the runways of LAMB Africa now form the frontline of in central and western Africa, and so and Jean Paul Gaultier, it’s seen as a fashion, with those in and Bamako companies quickly tailored their designs high-fashion material by designers especially renowned. Before fashion accordingly. Vlisco was and remains worldwide. design was a recognised profession, the market leader with its patented As foreigners settled in Africa, seamstresses and tailors were the ones Wax Hollandais fabric. ‘It’s made in locals adopted and transformed the who fed trends – and today’s designers, the Netherlands yet Africans feel like outsiders’ styles of dress. Billowing and most of whom operate from workshop- it’s their product, which is magical’, embroidered , such as the boubou, based production, remain reliant on says Vlisco’s Ester Huigen. ‘Our design , riga and caftan, are considered their skills. teams take inspirations from Africa the archetypal West African garments, and combine these with what’s going yet are testament to the Islamic infl uence on globally to create each collection.’ in the region since the 18th century. Vlisco makes four womenswear and Bowler and walking sticks remain FASHION IN FOCUS fabric collections a year and has also a staple for chiefs in the Delta, collaborated with designers including having been introduced by British The back catalogue of Africa’s celebrated Lanre Da Silva Ajayi, Gilles Touré and colonists in the 19th century. And the 20th-century photographers tells us Anggy Haif. Ghanaian kaba combines an African- more than any history book about It currently competes with local style wrapped with a European- African style. Malian photographer and Asian printed fabrics, called fancy, style . The half was originally Seydou Keïta (1921–2001) attracted the Ankara or simply African print, which encouraged by Christian missionaries whole of Bamako society to his studio feature designs varying from the who wished women to cover up their between 1948 and 1962. His formal yet abstract to depicting political leaders bare breasts. The ensemble remains intimate portraits employed an array and everyday objects. Originally the popular and is viewed as entirely African. of backdrops and props (everything

Clockwise from top left: The Peau de Léopard collection by Vlisco; The Nouvelle Histoire collection by Vlisco; Woman’s bogolanfi ni, mud cloth, skirt, c. 1990, Bamana people, Beledougou region, ; Woman’s wrapper cloth, 19th century, Yoruba, Nigeria. The magenta thread is silk from the trans-Saharan caravan trade; Man’s adinkra wrapper cloth, for funeral attire, c. 1960, Asante, ; The Nouvelle Histoire collection by Vlisco; The Sparkling Grace collection by Vlisco Introduction

9

NAF_180411.indb 9 10.08.11 14:05 10 from a fl ower to a Vespa) to add an , make-up and sets to transform futures and engaged in a dialogue with aspirational air to his subjects, who wore himself into different characters. In The international fashion and music trends. either African and headwraps or Liberated American Woman of the 70s he Today’s leading African photographic Western suits and army . Each wears heels and a Stetson while in The artists, such as Andrew Dosunmu, image is a black and white memoir of a Chief who Sold Africa to the Colonialists Nontsikelelo ‘Lolo’ Veleko, Koto city’s reinvention of itself in the face of he’s on his throne, sunfl owers in his Bolofo, Iké Udé, Chris Saunders and unrelenting modernity. hand where his spear should be. Hassan Hajjaj, each have their own His fellow citizen Malick Sidibé All these photographers were unique practices that will leave behind photographed Bamako’s post-colonial engrossed by an African youth culture the cultural documents for fashion youth in the 1960s and 1970s. Whether that was in full bloom at the time historians of the future. doing the Twist at a party, play- when hipsters were hopeful for their fi ghting on the beach or posing with their favourite James Brown records, his subjects wore the latest fl ares and minidresses with pride – and would fl ock to his studio the following week to marvel at the magical gelatin silver prints of themselves. Sidibé was commissioned by The New York Times Magazine to Seydou Keïta, Untitled, recreate his studio portraits for a fashion 1959, gelatin silver shoot in 2009. At fi rst glance they look print like images from his archive, but upon closer inspection the models (his family and friends) are wearing garments from Spring/Summer 2009 collections by the likes of Bottega Veneta, Chloé, Duro Olowu and Dries Van Noten. Jean Depara (1928–1997) chronicled the elan of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. In 1954 he was made the offi cial photographer of rumba singer Franco, which allowed him to stalk the city’s night spots, his camera strapped across him ‘like a bow’, in search of well- dressed, badly behaved revellers. Polka, tango and rumba resonated through the city, bringing a multi-ethnic crowd together. Nigeria’s J. D. Okhai Ojeikere chronicled ‘moments of beauty’ to create an artistic commentary on ethnographic change. He is best known for his Hairstyles series, which began in 1968 and includes around 1,000 headshots of fanciful braided up-dos and geles. Shot mainly from behind, these abstract images freeze the ephemeral and celebrate the admirable lengths to which African women go in the name of looking good. Samuel Fosso grew up in Nigeria but fl ed to Bangui, Central African Republic, to escape the Biafran War. By day he shot paying customers at his studio yet by night he turned the camera on himself. Fosso’s elaborate self-portraits began as narcissistic attempts at looking cool in his 1970s (tight , dark , hot pants) but developed to incorporate

NAF_Prelim.indd 10 11.08.11 14:21 Left: Shade Fahm designs

Right: Styling by Oumou Sy, 1999

GENERATION THEN

Building upon past centuries of fashion Folorunsho Alakija join her in Nigeria’s the Chelsea School of Art in 1977 and is development, the fi rst generation of fashion’s archive. now considered one of the forefathers recognised fashion designers drew on Pathé Ouédraogo grew up in Burkina of Ghanaian fashion. His Art Dress line local fabrics and styles as a means of Faso and opened his studio in Côte incorporates kente, the famous woven showing pride in their African identities d’Ivoire in 1977. His label, Pathé’O, fabric invented for the Ashante royalty, in the wake of a fl urry of independence focused on modernised bubus and pagnes and adinkra, a printed cloth associated that swept across Africa in the 1960s. and has become presidential wear for with Akan funerals, into his designs. This in turn attracted international leaders including Nelson Mandela. Malian Niger designer Seidnally Sidhamed, consumers, not least African-Americans Chris Seydou (1949–1994) achieved better known as Alphadi, co-founded the who were engaged in the Civil Rights acclaim in and across Fédération Africaine des Créateurs and in movement and who adopted African for his innovative use of bogolanfi ni. The 1998 launched the Festival International attire and hairstyles under the rallying mudcloth is made by Bamana women de la Mode Africaine (FIMA) in the cry of ‘Black is Beautiful’. and is distinguished by its brown and Niger desert, a landmark African Nigerian designer Shade Thomas- white geometric patterns. It is believed fashion exposition bringing African Fahm trained at Central Saint Martins to absorb nyama, a dangerous energy and international designers together. in London, where she also worked as a released while hunting and during His award-winning designs reference model. She returned to Lagos in 1960 circumcision ceremonies. Seydou was nomadic tribes. Oumou Sy is a celebrated to launch the Shade’s Boutique chain, the fi rst to turn it into a fashion fabric Senegalese and fashion designer offering modern versions of traditional in the 1970s. While respecting its ritual who founded the Carnival of Dakar in garments. The pre-tied gele, turning iro signifi cance, he carefully adjusted it to the 1990s. Her fantastical creations are and buba into a zip-up wrapper skirt make Western styles. Today the Groupe often excessively decorated, both with and adapting a man’s agbada into a Bogolan Kasobané, a collective of artists the beautiful (feathers, embroidery, woman’s embroidered boubou were headed up by Kandioura Coulibaly, keep amber beads) and the absurd (CDs, all her fashion fi rsts. ‘At the time the fabric alive. perfume bottles, calabashes), and turn Nigerian women wore imported , Ghanaian Tetteh Adzedu began their wearers into goddess-like symbols they thought African wear was their the menswear label Adzedu of Shapes of African power and liberation. And in

mothers’ thing. But I was young and in Accra in the 1980s, where he also South Africa, Errol Arendz and Marianne Introduction my dreams were tall’, she says. Fahm established a fashion school and Fassler entered the fashion scene in the was patronised by Nigerian royalty was president of the Ghana Fashion 1980s and remain major players, having and professional women alike and sold Designers’ Association. Fellow cemented their reputation as founders of worldwide. Abah Folawiyo, Betti O and Ghanaian Kofi Ansah graduated from contemporary fashion in the country. 11

NAF_180411.indb 11 10.08.11 14:07 12 Yves Saint Laurent, 1967

THE FRENCH CONNECTION

Yves Saint Laurent was undoubtedly among them Nigerian designer Duro potential projects for the brand in sub- the fi rst internationally acclaimed Olowu. ‘A man always remembered Saharan Africa to come up with his fashion designer of African descent. women who wore Yves Saint Laurent, idea of ‘Africa in winter’. The collection He was born in Oran, Algeria, in 1936, the clothes were extremely romantic featured dark dresses coated with a place he described as ‘a town glittering and truly sexy’, Olowu wrote in Tank feathers and amulet-like breastplates. in a patchwork of all colours under Magazine. ‘His African origins were very He also supports African models, with the sedate North African sun’, and in pronounced in his designs. Growing Sudanese beauties Ajak Deng and Ataui later life he spent much of his time in up in Africa, your fi rst experience of Deng his most recent fi nds. Marrakech, where he owned the Jardin a woman’s appearance would be the Tunisian Azzeline Alaïa established Majorelle. His designs repeatedly drew fl owing of fabric, the way it held and his brand in Paris in 1980 after stints at on the continent. His landmark Spring/ framed the female form. He took a Christian Dior, Guy Laroche and Thierry Summer 1967 African collection featured typical tunic shape and recreated it in Mugler and has been nicknamed the a series of revealing shift dresses made such an incredible way, and his use of ‘king of cling’ for his signature body- from raffi a, wooden beads and shells rich Orientalist colours borrowed from conscious silhouettes. His collections (a look re-imagined by Dolce & Gabbana the North African palette.’ have included python-skin dresses in 2005 and by Gucci in 2011). Harper’s Other designers of African descent and covered in cowrie shells, Bazaar described it at the time as ‘a have taken up Yves Saint Laurent’s raffi a and bells. Moroccan Joseph fantasy of primitive genius – shells . Morocco-born Alber Elbaz Ettedgui helped defi ne luxury basics and jungle jewellery clustered to cover worked at Yves Saint Laurent Rive with his British brand Joseph, Tunisian the bosom and hips, latticed to bare Gauche, Guy Laroche and Krizia, but it Loris Azzaro’s Paris-based label excels the midriff’. The following year he was his appointment as creative director at showstopping gowns and fellow invented the safari and successive of Lanvin in 2001 that propelled him to Tunisian Max Azria reigns over his collections included his take on tunics, the status of fashion royalty thanks to his BCBGMAXAZRIA global empire, which caftans, djellabahs and . timeless, joyful designs. For Autumn/ encompasses over 20 brands, including Yves Saint Laurent has infl uenced Winter 2010/11 Elbaz was inspired by his eponymous line and Herve Leger. generations of fashion luminaries, a meeting with the UN held to discuss

NAF_180411.indb 12 10.08.11 14:07 Introduction 13 13 10.08.11 15:43 Meanwhile Paul Smith paid Autumn/WinterFor 2011/12 Walter portraits stars football of as basis and the collection. printsin the the of Daniel to Italianhomage photographer pictorial Laessay Tamagni’s of Sape (Société Ambianceurs des et Persons Élégants), a league Congolese of as ‘sapeurs’ known gentlemen who altar fashion.pray at the designer of started movement The 1922 in when G. A. Matsousa returned French to the from Pariscolony dressed as a European aristocrat. Sapeurs in Brazzaville and Kinshasa a sartorial by abide now code as out local that them conduct marks of celebrities. brought Smith’s collection full aesthetic the circle feeding by La Sape fashion. high style into back used an all-black Beirendonck Van his fringed off to show cast models of menswear worn with tribal hoop accessories make-up. and Sass & Bide caftandid feather-print dresses. And Masai combined colours Thakoon costumes with the to Versailles of and paisleys and brightcreate plaids hemlines. with high-low silhouettes lled lled uenced owers. Vivienne The tribal trend reached a crescendo tribalThe a crescendo reached trend In 2010 Issey Miyake, Marc Jacobs, baggy gaudy, into boubou gured the refi Africanised in gold covered animal prints.and Spring/Summer 2009.for Alexander prints McQueen’s kaleidoscopic at savannahhinted wildlife and landscapes. African fauna inspired Chisato’s feather dresses.Tsumori grass teamed Louis Vuitton with accessories.wooden Watanabe’s Junya towering fi headwear wore models fl with sheaves of lines. Puma collaborated with Nigerian- American who Wiley, artist Kehinde used African fabrics as to his a backdrop Westwood tied and draped leopard- and and draped and tied leopard- Westwood zebra-print fabrics body. the around Furstenberg, von Diane And has who repeatedly returned to Africa in her 1970s, the since collections safari offered . Kenzo, Gucci, and Noten Dries Van KishimotoEley all examined traditional , in part in interest due to the Africa 2010 the by FIFA piqued World Africa. in South Cup Sports brands also African-infl with followed Spring/Summer 2009 ready-to-wear collection; Resort Suno collection, 2011 couture rst haute Left right: to Jean Spring/ Gaultier, Paul Summer 2005 collection; Junya Watanabe, collection for Christian for collection in 1997 Dior a series inspired silhouettes included of East the by African tribes. Beaded hats, corsets were worn and with long, silk evening gowns. Masai and Dinka warriors wear corsets here but crossedGalliano cultures with his use of garment,the commonly is more which regarded as originating from 16th- the century court Henry of II . of Jean Paul Gaultier’s couture 2005 haute in red featured baked show models wearing and mud Afro wigs, feathered fromdresses, made tortoiseshell shields a huge a bridal of and consisting African leather white mask. same In the Bernhardyear, Willhelm’s Autumn/ Winter menswear 2005/06 collection Throughout the decades, the Throughout and these international designers have other fashion’screated fantasies African the of aesthetic, cherry-picking from cultures, terrains Thierry peoples. and Mugler’s African culminated fetish in his Spring/ Iman which in 1985Summer show her on perched walked with a monkey a straw over and parasol held shoulder in a . male model a black by her Galliano’s fi John INTO AFRICA INTO NAF_Prelim.indd 13 14

Left: Paul Smith, Spring/Summer 2010 collection

Right: Sapeur Willy Covary

It’s those designers who collaborate with an essence of optimism’, he says. fashion but sees its intelligent application with African artisans in order to harness Suno now shows during New York as a positive thing. ‘Designers and artists authentic materials and techniques, and Fashion Week, creates its own kanga- are drawn to the unique vitality and bridge the gap between African-born inspired prints and employs up to 130 purity of Africa and the prominence and African-inspired by basing socially Kenyan tailors. ‘Already other designers of the free spirit, which is sadly often responsible production on the continent, are asking us about working out of found missing from our day to day who create the most meaningful Kenya. Suno speaks of Africa as a place lives. Today’s most infl uential designers results. Ethiopian model, actress and to get things done, and as a source of have a global appeal while retaining an philanthropist Liya Kebede aims to help inspiration.’ indigenous handwriting.’ Ethiopian weavers with LemLem. Her African designers have mixed This approach refl ects the way in line of children’s and womenswear is feelings about the ways in which which African people have always hand-spun and embroidered in Addis Western designers adopt the visual combined cultures in their dress, a Ababa and sold worldwide. Edun, which language of Africa. While it keeps the practice that contemporary African was established by Ali Hewson and her continent in style, clichés are inevitable. designers, working to international husband Bono and is part-owned by ‘European designers choose certain fashion seasons, have accelerated. They luxury group LVMH, is a similar ‘trade colours or materials without necessarily move beyond what is perceived to be the not aid’ initiative. The line is produced understanding their value. Now African African aesthetic by embracing genuine mainly in and its profi ts go designers have begun to be recognised fabrics and styles of dress yet looking to sustainable farming communities for using their heritage in a way that to the rest of the world for inspiration. in Uganda, and to funding children in contributes to the evolution of their The fashion world is going global and Kibera, the largest slum in Kenya. culture by creating contemporary the African infl uence has gone beyond Likewise, Suno was established by versions of their traditional crafts’, a trend to become part of the fashion New Yorkers Max Osterweis and Erin says Sudanese designer Omer Asim. lexicon. The best design is no longer Beatty as a response to Kenya’s post- ‘This is more interesting because it is defi ned by its borders, yet recognises election turmoil in 2008. The pair went relevant to young urban Africans who where it came from. It delivers desirable, to Nairobi, where they used Osterweis’s want to wear things that express their inspirational pieces stemming from an vast collection of vintage Kenyan kangas identity and also gives the diaspora open-minded environment, whether (colourful cloth with aphorisms printed a means of connecting with their that’s in Luanda or London, Maputo on them) to create the brand’s fi rst homeland in a more authentic way.’ or Milan, Nairobi or New York. The collection for Spring/Summer 2009. British/Ghanaian designer Joe future holds joint partnerships and a ‘I wanted to create jobs in Kenya, elevate Casely-Hayford is unsurprised by level playing fi eld that is not defi ned the cloth and build a print-driven brand Africa’s continued infl uence on global by destination.

NAF_180411.indb 14 10.08.11 14:08 Introduction 15 15 10.08.11 14:08 nd ‘When Alek Wek came on to the came to the on ‘When Wek Alek success crossover of the by Inspired anybody who has a touch of jungle fever, fever, has jungle of who a touch anybody back. their I’ve got Sozzani understands society’sthat into we all go pot.melting 2007Since has so much we changed but ball.’ the on eye still our to keep have was 1995 in she scene real called the African fashion In the industry beauty. black one for was room there only at a time’, sayssupermodel Anna Getaneh, days these runs who the Children’sEthiopian Fund the and Johannesburg-based fashion enterprise African Mosaique. ‘So to have several African different with beauties looks is refreshing. now working It’s positive Africafor also encourages and aspiring continent.’ the on models as such Liyamodels Kebede, Flaviana Matata, Uwera, Honorine Kinée Diouf, Agbani Darego, Nasenyana Ajuma and Ubah Hassan, to fi is on hunt the major The continent. beauty the new on agencies African have modelling scouts. has global Look the extended Model Elite Vogue Black website, Vogue of swell growing the les rst hall’ series a ‘town in of Exceptions to the rule include Alek rule Alek to the include Exceptions meetings in New York that challenged meetings in New York industry’sthe diversity. lack of The The effects immediately. were girls black seasons saw more following catwalks the on in 2008 Vogue and FrancaItalia’s editor in chief Sozzani rst issue, all-black which instigated fi the twice Hardison out cast helped over. sold to on has issue and the gone for models to the contribute profi she where African as such Deng, girls Ajak Aminata Niaria Georgie Baddiel. and me ‘Give When she witnessed the decline in decline witnessed the she When popularity African and black of models 2000s, 1990s early the and throughout wasshe driven to speak ‘There up. a handfulwere only African of you girls were girls recognise, older could all the disappearing ones new hardly any and were replacing them.’ Darie, Waris Wek, Kiara Kabakuru and Anna Getaneh. Hardison action took against fashion’s whitewash in 2007 by fi the hosting Iman, Africa’s one of most successful models , she became, she Vogue ‘It were was time. a unique We Paco Saint Laurent Rabanne Yves and in the 1970s. in the Vogue It was also in cover the to be on rst woman black the 1970sthe 1980s and catwalks that the Milan London, and New York, of Paris girls. to black Africans belonged Khadija Adam, Iman, Rebecca Ayoko, Katoucha Niane, and Amina Warsuma Jamaican Grace joined Tuomba Jinnie African-Americans and Jones Sandi Bass, Pat Cleveland, Peggy Dillard, Bethann Smith and Toukie Billie Blair, pro-black for Hardison in working fashion as houses such Pierre Cardin, Courrèges, Burrows, Stephen , Thierry and Givenchy Mugler, . brick road and yellow the following didn’t even realise it. It was all brand new remembers it becameand moment’, our model own Hardison, her set up who Bethannagency, Management, in 1984, Beckford’s Tyson make helped and Girls career. Black also formed the She with Iman in 1988Coalition as a means colour. of models championing of of an Yves Saint Laurent muse, and she she Laurent muse, Saint and Yves an successful most the of remains one African all time. of models rst designers to use fi the were among 1960s, in the the colour of models Ugandandecade in which princess African- and Elizabeth Toro of Americans Donyale Sims and Naomi rst magazine black Luna became fi the was Johnson Beverly the cover-girls. fi The rise of Africanrise of The fashion is inextricably to its models linked muses.and In 1975 Iman Mohamed wasAbdulmajid to New presented fashion at a press scene York’s photographer tabledconference by Peter Beard. was that He claimed she an illiterate tribeswoman whom he’d discovered herding cattle the on Saharan plains. reality In Iman was born in Somalia, daughter a the of a gynaecologist, and diplomat and ve languages. had met She fi spoke Beard while studying University at the in was and Nairobi of an accomplice three for scheme his mythologising rstmodelling fi her It worked: months. wasassignment for IT’S A IT’S JUNGLE IN HERE NAF_180411.indb 15 16 Model Aminata Niaria Africa, Kenya, Botswana and Ghana. According to a 2011 study by the African Development Bank, one in three Africans (313 million people) is now defi ned as middle class. Growing numbers are well-educated, well- travelled, living in urban areas and helping to drive future economic and cultural development. Booming manufacturing, fi nance, corporate and technology sectors are being rivalled by the creative industries and big business and governments are beginning to take note. The fashion and textile industry is a signifi cant contributor to the GDP of many countries. In South Africa, it typically employs 200,000 people and generates over R20 billion (US$2.9 billion) per annum. By working on a small scale and using local labour and resources, it’s creating jobs, keeping traditional craftsmanship alive, developing fair trade networks, bolstering retail and building a business model that benefi ts the African economy from the ground up. African fashion is also being aided by a rapid increase in telecommunications. Due to improved cable and satellite connectivity, Africa now has more than 500 million mobile phone users, 110 million internet users and 25 million modelling competition to several African produces Town Fashion Week, Facebook members. This allows for countries and South African TV network Joburg Fashion Week and Africa Fashion e-commerce, new media and social M- hosts an annual continent-wide Week. Tanzanian model Millen Magese media to connect designers quickly, search, Face of Africa. Oluchi Onweagba is a mainstay of AFI events. ‘Our aim easily and cheaply to their customers was the fi rst winner in 1998 and remains is to provide a platform from which and each other. Blogspot and Twitter its most successful export to date. And African designers and models can launch both rank in the top 10 most visited sites as the fashion industry burgeons across international careers’, says Motsepe. in Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa, Africa, modelling is becoming a viable ‘Ours is a land of diversity, a reality that with fashion taking up no small part in career choice for many. is beautifully translated into our fashion. the conversation. African and diaspora Fashion weeks are multiplying We can’t help but be noticed within an portals such as BellaNaija, Fashizblack, fast. FAFA in Kenya, Mozambique industry that is always looking for fresh iFashion, HauteFashion, Ladybrille, Fashion Week, Swahili Fashion Week talent.’ African Style Daily, Style House Files, in Tanzania, Fashion Business Angola, One Nigerian Boy and Shadders and Fashion Week and Zimbabwe e-commerce sites including My Asho, Fashion Week are just a handful of Heritage 360 and Agnes and Lola all them. ARISE magazine hosts shows GENERATION NOW transport African fashion to the world. in London, New York and Paris as well There has been a surge in African as its own fashion week in Lagos. And The success of the new generation of fashion periodicals too. While Condé fashion weeks have also designers, models and fashion scenes Nast stirred up much debate by passing cropped up in New York, London and around Africa is a refl ection of Africa’s on the option of bringing out a Vogue Dublin. success as a whole. The continent is Africa in 2010, African glossies such as South Africa undoubtedly holds gradually emerging as a global power Canoe, Fab, Pop’Africana, Clam, True the best prospects for models, with thanks to increased trade and investment Love, African Woman, Thisday Style and numerous fashion weeks held between Africa and the rest of the ARISE are all read by opinion-formers throughout the year. Dr Precious world and improved political stability in search of quality African fashion Motsepe established African Fashion and economic growth in burgeoning editorials. ARISE chairman and editor International (AFI) in 2006, which now democracies such as Nigeria, South in chief Nduka Obaigbena says: ‘ARISE

NAF_180411.indb 16 10.08.11 14:08 Introduction 17 17 10.08.11 14:09 Some countries tackled have Some issue the according to Lagos-basedBut designer becoming merchandisersbecoming salesmen’, and says Jeffrey Kimathi Nairobi-based of streetwear brand Jamhuri Wear. fashion of import and the banning by textiles, an in taxing heavily or them local stimulate to production, attempt creates different issues. approach this but In Nigeria textile were outlawed imports in 2003, resulted in a large which number manufacturingof closing companies imports. a rise and in black-market down restrictions Although were somewhat lifted of in 2010, choice lack of the fabrics factories and remains an ongoing designers. for problem Folarin-CokerFolake Tiffany of Amber, creativity a continent all on conquers that has than its fair had more share strife.of ‘It’s true, is still there a lack infrastructure,of fabrics, technical support. government and know-how us make super only constraints these But trainresourceful people as and more as fashion designers, a it is becoming effect.domino process It’s been a long we’re The to compete. now ready but future African of fashion hands is in the great designers.’of cantproportion l seasonal overseas orders. The second-hand clothes market is is market clothes second-hand The of donations to charities USA in the donations of import, Their up. Europe ends and distribution, resale repair and has a thrivingbecome industry provides and with accessconsumers to affordable fashion. fashion-conscious In Kenya use hand- shoppers dressing agents who best items from the each shipment pick mitumba it even reaches the before trademarkets. The creates employment local expense of at the but choice, and price. on can’tdesigners compete who new of Increasingly imports cheap from the Asiaclothing compound ‘Second-hand sellers problem. clothes are a necessary evil as but here Kenyan stable create more in and brands come can they from pull a pool employment, in trained have themselves talent who of a hot topic in Kenya, Zambia, topic a hot Ghana, Zimbabwe, RwandaTunisia, and , signifi a where encourage funding designers. for And infrastructurepoor countries in most that cuts, frequentmeans power of lack transportation unreliable and equipment costs.pushes up Designers can struggle to high standards small orders to produce timeframewithin the price and points fulfirequired to Designers means the both have magazine is leading way in satisfying the Africa’s for demand unprecedented the to show designers. here nest We’re fi that Africaworld cutting is at the edge of international fashion.’ communication of channels the and are recognition.to achieve They in traditions are exposed but grounded tastes, and to international trends satisfy to them allowing local demand, attract shape international and interest contemporary AfricanIt’s identities. agendasuences and that infl this axis of is making African fashion so exciting vitaland right now. Dress by Tiffany Dress Amber CHALLENGING TIMES isn’t an easy road ahead The one, cultiesfacing diffi The however. African fashion’s remain real. growth formal is a lack of there For example, fashion educational facilities, which creates weaknesses in all aspects of industrythe from pattern-cutting and styling PR. and to marketing is no There cial to unify body and offi continent-wide NAF_180411.indb 17 10.08.11 14:09 FASHION

18 New African Fashion NAF_180411.indb Sec2:18 Designers 10.08.11 14:09 Maki Oh 19 NAF_180411.indb Sec2:19 20

DURO

OLOWU Prints Charming

At Duro Olowu’s debut at the Milk Studios, his models, including Georgie Baddiel, Kinée Diouf and Sigail Currie, came into view wearing an elegant cacophony of colours, prints, fabrics and textures. Velvet, printed , vintage textiles, merino jacquard and Linton tweed were patchworked, layered, reassembled and panelled together to create sweeping fl oor-length, bias-cut dresses, fi tted zip-up , multi-peplum jackets, wide- legged cropped and bell-sleeved cocoon cardigans. The look was in equal part noble, womanly and cosy. ‘My intention was to create a freestyle, chic for an independent spirit’, says Olowu, who cites South American gauchos, Mexican screen icon María Félix and African-American Harlem Renaissance photographer James Van Der Zee as the touchstones of the Autumn/Winter 2011/12 collection.

NAF_180411.indb Sec2:20 10.08.11 14:09 Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritariam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dtis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt. Neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. To eu faccum vel incing ercil ullum qui el dolut at. Em nostrud tis non er in heniam velit, quat, velit inciliqui te digna facil ut at. Gait acin hendrem vulluptatet iril utat alit dolobor ing erilit wismodit, sustiniat, ver suscidunt ut aliquis er iureraessit dio del ut lan vel dolor adignit eliquat irit laore consenim nonsequi tat nim ea feum quis niam dipsum eu facing esed tio dolore ex exercinim iril ex eraesecte minibh endip eugait ipiscip ercin eu feugue dolore dolor si. Ud magna facipit nisci blaore commy nonsequatie estrud mincin ullam, consectet la conseniam venismo lortin el utpat nulputet, vulput utpat aci et, consed consectet la conseniam venismo lortin el utpat nulputet, vulput utpat aci et, consed dolutat. Heniam, con ulla feu faciduipidolutat. Heniam, con ulla feu faciduipisse el inibh eugiatem iriurer dipisis num zzrit, veliquat niscili quisit laortis augiamc onsenim dolore et alissi. Ilit nonsed doloborperit iurero exeraesecte min hent in veniam illum zzrit nulla facidunt nulput aliquis endre

NAF_180411.indb Sec2:21 10.08.11 14:10 22

Married to Thelma Golden, chief curator of The Studio Museum in Harlem, and with customers including Michelle Obama, Iman, Bethann Hardison, Shala Monroque and Iris Apfel, it’s little wonder Olowu made the move to New York after several seasons at London Fashion Week. But his story begins elsewhere: in Lagos, where he was born and raised. ‘I was a child of the 1970s, I saw the world from the cushion on the fl oor and I always drew. Lagos was a bustling city, I loved the way people always made an effort in how they dressed. Nigerian clothes look very structured but are actually very light. It’s all about posture and mixing fabrics and prints. My mother had a very carefree style, she’d wear a Gucci with a skirt made by a local . It has all became part of my aesthetic.’ Olowu trained as a lawyer in London but, moved by Yves Saint Laurent’s vision of ‘attainable beauty’, he started the label Olowu Golding with his fi rst wife Elaine Golding in the mid- 1990s. After the marriage ended, he began his eponymous line for Spring/Summer 2004 and opened a boutique on Portobello Road, selling a capsule collection of voluminous empire-line dresses based on the Yoruba boubou. ‘It was a very joyful, effortless and comfortable dress. It had a deep V neckline, long sleeves and was made from viscose so it fl owed nicely when you walked. If you were in Paris, London or Lagos, you could have worn that dress, day or night.’

NAF_DuroOlowu.indd Sec2:22 24.08.11 16:45 Fashion 10.08.11 14:10 rst attering Duro Olowu 23 Duro sexy.’ and dent featuredIn 2005 US it, Vogue beginning a craze thus He’s accolades, including collected numerous since for what became as what ‘Durofor the known New Dress’. He won British fi at the (the Fashion Awards Year Designer the of a catwalk done having gained and so without brand show) to do and Barneys them among New York world, the stockists around Maria Louisa, Paris. 2010 at the Africa Year International Designer the of Fashion in St James’s, boutique a new central opened and Awards, Week space to ock to this intimate London. His customers loyal fl graze his instinctual on reclaimed couture of fabrics union with form-fl prints, talent for and kaleidoscopic own his tailoring draping. bohemian His and handcrafted, limited- the celebrate all ageless, are pieces above sensualedition and woman.urbane ‘I being precious thrive authenticity on without things want to make and that last’, to have says. don’t he ‘You champion clothes be a size my rich, good. zero, or I hope look to ed,confi dignifi to feel them inspire and women NAF_180411.indb Sec2:23