Antwaun Sargent is an art critic focusing on black image-makers and fashion and the curator of the book “The New Black Vanguard” (2019). Kenneth Izedonmwen is a Nigerian luxury designer who creates styles that preserve the cultural heritage of some of the ethnicities of his country. His unisex brand – Kenneth Ize – is known for using locally weaved aso-oke …

The universe of African fashion films is diverse and under-investigated. Most of the times they are left out of discussions of African fashion in spite of an uptick in their production and the positive reception on the continent. Given fashion’s heavy reliance and emphasis on storytelling for branding and marketing purposes, this lack of attention is hard to explain. In my …

Duro Olowu is known chiefly for two things: a style that mixes prints and textures (dubbed “Prints Charming” by Helen Jennings) and his endorsement by former First Lady Michelle Obama, who also had him decorate the Vermeil Room of the White House for Christmas. Since establishing his brand in 2004 following an experience with his former wife and winning New Designer of …

Last month Vlisco&Co unveiled a multimedia project on Igbo culture that includes a collaboration with artist Yagazie Emezi and designers Fruche and Gozel Green. In “Present and Forgotten – An amalgamation of Igbo culture ” Yagazie revisits a topic that is dear to her heart: preserving Nigeria’s ethnic memory and knowledge. For Vlisco she created a series of shots of culture-sensitive styles …

Stephen Tayo is a documentary photographer whose street shots capture everyday life in Lagos. Many of such pictures reflect self-styling practices and dress cultures in urban and rural contexts. They are therefore a great source of research and learning if you are interested in Nigerian street fashion. Tayo’s work has been featured in Vogue,  It’s Nice That, and Coeval Magazine. …

Daniel Obasi (Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram) is a 23 year old stylist, photographer, and art director from Abia and now based in Lagos, who is being hailed as one a prolific representative of the New African Aesthetics movement. Daniel has shot and styled a number of iconic fashion campaigns and collaborated with national and international brands, most notably Vlisco on the …

I have meant to do reports on individual African countries for some time. Referring to African fashion in the singular doesn’t capture the market’s diversity and it doesn’t take into account the different speeds at which the industry is evolving in each country. It also reproduces assumptions that the styles from the continent fall into an homogeneous category, overlooking, among …

After a long hiatus, I wrote a little something on the Nigerian designer Maki Oh. The piece appeared on IAM Magazine. Maki Oh is the Nigerian womenswear label run by Amaka Osakwe. A fixed presence on global runways since her debut in 2010, Osakwe appeared at New York Fashion Week in 2012 and has since been invited to the White House …

“Talents” is a space to showcase and learn about the work of emerging creatives in the fields of black fashion, photography, and fine art. *** My Name is Diana Ejaita, Berlin-Based textile designer and fine artist. All of my work is definitely influenced by both my Nigerian and European origins. I like to play with the geometrical, ancient african simbologies and organic forms which …

As anticipated, here is my second post about Mukhtara Yusuf, penned and published in Blacks to the Future. Stay on the blog to read it, or head to BsttF to enjoy a bonus audio track by Mukhtara’s mother! *** Mukhtara Yusuf is a cultural activist of Nigerian Yoruba origin who explores identity making in a post-colonial context through Afrofuturist art. …