A new short film by Samantha Casolari is out, featuring Lupita Nyong’o dancing to music by Valentin Sip. The caption reads: Oscar Award winner and star of blockbuster-to-be Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Lupita Nyong’o loses herself in candid footage captured during her recent Elle UK cover shoot. This is not the usual behind-the-scene video. With jumpcuts, low light, and an atmospheric soundtrack Casolari …

Though Rosa Parks is best known for her role as a civil rights activist, the Alabama native also worked as a seamstress at the Montgomery Fair department store. She was on her way home from work Dec. 1, 1955, when she was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on the bus to a white passenger. At the time, …

“Leaving the UK and going ‘home’ to Ghana” is an article by BBC News on reaspora, or reverse migration – the return of first and second generation immigrants to Africa. It comments on two video interviews with a lecturer/deejay and a businessman from Ghana, who have moved back to Accra from London in recent years. This article is useful to summarize a widespread view on reaspora …

A few weeks ago, Bloomberg posted an analysis of Africa’s luxury goods market containing useful data to understand a core aspect of the “Africa rising” narrative: the rise of the super-luxury economy of fashion and accessories. Citing projections by Euromonitor of a steady annual growth of Sub-Saharan GDP at 4-5% for the next five years, the study states that the continent is replacing Eastern Asia as …

I love True Africa‘s post on Muhammadu Buhari as a fashion icon. The article shows the carefully curated style of the Nigerian president, particularly his passion for headgear (that is not exempt from controversy) and eyewear, with some telling pictures. Looking at the images, one cannot but agree with the author that Buhari uses “public appearance as a catwalk”. I am interested in his look of leadership not …

Ethiopia is one of Africa’s biggest apparel and footwear manufacturers, supplying international brands the likes of Primark, Levi’s Strauss, Tesco, and Asos with cheap, streamlined manufacturing and domestically sourced cotton. According to the Ethiopian Investment Commission, the key reasons to invest in Ethiopia are: Abundant available workforce at very competitive costs: wages in Ethiopia are a fifth of China’s and half of Vietnam’s. Quality …

Laura Eboa Songue, Op-Ed: All African Fashion Needs is Structure – Songue lists five “essential pillars” to build a sustainable fashion industry in Africa: the creation of a pan-African fashion council to establish a framework of reference and maximize designer exposure; better training for designers (a point raised by Charity Nyirongo I discuss here); improvement of fashion-focused African media; launch of professional fairs to …

Afro-centric styles are often visually represented as a conquest of the urban space. I have written about blipsters who perform cool as a “proactive occupation” of the streets of the Western metropolis, and about South African sartorialists who collaborate with international brands to showcase township fashion’s message of emancipation. I have also sketched an analysis of the aesthetic of the township street style here and here, contending that the limiting geography of the township is an …

Fashion designer Charity Nyirongo of Mo Creations and Couture calls attention to the contribution of local fashion to Zambian tourism. Speaking at Hub of Africa Fashion Week 2015 in Addis Ababa, she invited the government to fund the creation of designing institutions to boost local talent and establish the country as a fashion and tourist destination. In particular, Nyirongo laments the collapse …

AlJazeera posted a video report on the prospects for Kenya’s economy entitled “Counting the costs? Kenya: the new factory of the world”. The video shows a country polarized between fast industrialization, consumerism, and the extreme poverty of more than 40% of its population. Kenya expects to have an annual growth of 10% by 2017, thus becoming one of the world’s biggest economies. …