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 …