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 …

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. …

H&M, Europe’s second fashion retailer, has launched its first store in sub-Saharan Africa in Cape Town and plans to open more in Johannesburg, following an increase in the local demand for top international brands. Promoting itself as a purveyor of “sustainable” and “democratic” fashion, the brand caters to the aspirational market of the South African middle class, as well as to “people who might …

Writer Taiye Selasi is credited for having introduced the neologism Afropolitan into pop culture with her famous essay “Bye Bye Babar” (2005), which reformulates cosmopolitanism and citizenship for hypermobile Africans. In the words of Selasi, Afropolitans “belong to no single geography, but feel at home in many”. The ambassadors of a “multi-dimensional thinking”, they “form an identity along at least three dimensions: national, racial, cultural”. This means …

In a short documentary on the fashion scene in Trinidad and Tobago entitled Haute Caribe, we learn about the latest trends from the forerunners of Caribbean fashion and how Trinidadian designers create garments that must be “enjoyed” and “felt” not only by their wearers, but also by the people around them. In this way, they establish an almost direct link between Carnival and …

Valentino’s Spring/Summer 2016 collection is out and it just put “wild Africa” back on the radar of mainstream fashion for a controversial reception. Described as “an ode” to the continent, the collections was designed by Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli to channel the “regal” allure of the “primitive, the tribal, the spiritual.” To this aim, it showcased kaftans, smock dresses, flares, and tunics in geometric …

To the cry of Belard is the new cool! “The art of the turban” on the French blog Nothing but the Wax describes the headwrap as a hypervisible symbol of Afrodiasporic pride and, increasingly, a universal badge of coolness. The article includes links to turban-focused blogs and e-retailers of scarfs, as well as lots of beautiful pictures. For more on the turban roll, CNN Africa shared a …