PARIWO

A torch shines for African fashion in new places every day! Check out the 4th annual Africa Fashion Show Geneva (AFSG) at the Grand Hotel Kempinski in Geneva, Switzerland.

“The Africa Fashion Show Geneva showcases and promotes the unique culture, history and evolution of African fashion. It is also a platform to showcase African fashion designers to the world.”

With greater infrastructure in adjacent industries to retail, the fashion industry in Nigeria will eventually develop strong manufacturing hubs to rival those in Asia and Europe. Good news awaits those in Calabar, Nigeria where it was announced yesterday that a new garment factory would open in Q4 2016.

As part of a new business cluster in the Cross River State, this new garment factory will employ 3000 individuals and will prioritize hiring widows to produce uniforms for customs and police and tees for the National Youth Service Corps.

“Organizers of the Africa Fashion Week London (AFWL) will officially launch the week celebration on Friday, 26th June, 2015.”

“The launch will highlight the details of the event which is slated to hold at the Prestigious London Olympia from August 7th-8th, 2015. At the launch, brand Ambassador Victoria Micheals would disclose how she intends to use her brand to push and market Ghana at the fashion week celebration in London.”

“Retail giant H&M, which has collaborated with every big name from Beyonce to Lady Gaga, will open its first store in South Africa later this year.

After almost three years of speculations, it's officially confirmed that the Swedish retail company, found in 57 countries with over 3,500 stores, will open its first South African store in Sandton City, Johannesburg.

Mark the date fashionistas and friends alike, the store will open at the end of November. The H&M’s flagship store will approximately be 3 000m² in size. Billed as the second largest clothing retailer in the world, only two other H&M stores exist on the African continent – one in Morocco and another in Egypt.”

“Six years after the launch, the Ethical Fashion Initiative is going strong even with fewer than 7,000 staff and partnering with 29 brands, including Stella McCartney, Vivienne Westwood, Chan Luu, Karen Walker, Mifuko, United Arrows, and Stella Jean.

The ITC enables big fashion brands to connect with high-skilled artisans and designers in very marginalized settings, mostly in African countries like Kenya, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Mali and Ghana. They also work in other parts of the world such as Haiti, and more recently, Palestine.

“We have fashion partners that engage with us, and it’s tough to engage with us, but they engage with us in developing the products, in selling them, in conveying the stories and paying people fairly. They do a lot of work,” Cipriani said.”

“Vlisco Group, a leading designer and manufacturer of fashion fabrics has nominated three women in Ghana for the Vlisco Women’s Month Award 2015.

The Nominees are, Valerie Labi-Okudzeto, the Chief Executive Officer of Clean Team Ghana, Elizabeth Akua-Nyarko Patterson, the Founder and Executive Director of the Girls Education Initiative of Ghana and Kokui Selormey, a TV Host.

The Vlisco Women’s Month Award, honours the outstanding achievements of West and Central African women, by identifying and rewarding those who inspire others to realise their dreams.”

“Imagine this scenario: you are browsing through the images from London, New York, Milan or Paris Fashion Week and, of course, there’s a lot “to die for”.

A week later, you browse through the trend reports on different websites and blogs and you can hardly wait to have some of those items in your closet. Now, what if it was possible to have those items ready for you on the rails at your favourite local retailer within six to eight weeks?

This is the world of fast fashion and South African National Fashion Council chief executive Anita Stanbury, who believes this kind of quick response to trend data, can be just what the local clothing and textiles industries need for the amelioration of the entire value chain and job creation, by default.

“We have to see fashion as catalytic,” she says, distinguishing between what constitutes fashion and basic clothing items. “We are talking about fashionable items that are driven by market demand. We need to understand what is trending, whether that be on the red ­carpets, the runway or social media.””

"COSMO GOES SUB-SAHARAN: Cosmopolitan is making an appearance in Nigeria. The women’s title has expanded its presence digitally in sub-Saharan Africa with launch sponsor Estée Lauder Cos.The English-language site — Cosmopolitan.ng — is operated by a local editorial team in Lagos and led by blogger Yemisi Odusanya. 

As customary of Hearst Magazines and its shared digital newsroom, Odusanya has access to content across all the company’s international sites. This includes fashion, beauty and entertainment content for Cosmopolitan’s U.S., U.K. and Australia sites, for example, that can be repurposed for a Nigerian audience.Hearst said that Lauder’s buy for the month of February includes display ads, videos and local content and integration that links back to the beauty firm’s digital platforms in Nigeria. According to Duncan Edwards, president of Hearst Magazines International, Nigeria is a booming market for personal-care companies such as Lauder, Unilever, L’Oréal, Procter & Gamble and others. Translation: There are big ad dollars up for grabs in the region.

Edwards compared the economically evolving market in the region to China.Sub-Saharan Africa, the region, is likely to have the highest gross domestic product growth rates over the next 10 years. “Nigeria is the largest country in that region. It operates in the English language, so it’s a relatively easy first try for us,” Edwards told WWD. “If we can make this work in Nigeria, then there’s a handful of other countries in that region that should be relatively easy to follow.”"

"In July, the fashion entrepreneur Yodit Eklund did the unusual. She decided to restructure her four-year-old surfwear brand Bantu Wax, with the aim of reflecting and serving the African surf culture she grew up with.

Collaborating with local artists is a major part of Ms. Eklund’s new brand vision for the Ethiopian-made clothing line. “I work with young African designers, because they reflect what’s going on,” she explained at an interview during Paris Fashion Week in October. “It’s not about safari or masks.” The fabrics are designed by a team in Ivory Coast, while an in-house team in Dakar, Senegal, creates the styles.

She also decided to open a store this winter on Dakar’s beachfront, located between two surf breaks.

The Senegalese photographer Omar Victor Diop is creating a vast mural for the flagship, something he described at press time as a “work in progress.”

"JOHANNESBURG – South Africa may have seen an influx in international fashion brand heavyweights, but its neighbours on the continent are catching up.

In the last two years, international brands including Zara, Top Shop and River Island have entered the local retail market.

There is a strong investment case by international brands into the continent, as they view Africa as having growth potential, says managing director of Atterbury Property Developments (Atterbury) James Ehlers."

"African online retailer of fashion products, consumer electronics, home appliances to beauty products, Jumia said it has received a new round of investment amounting to €120 million. “These investments, which were made by existing shareholders, strengthen the company's position as the leading online retailer in Africa,” Jumia said in a statement. Jumia is part of Africa Internet Group (AIG), a leading Internet group in Africa with 9 companies in 26 countries."

Announcement: New International Brands Coming to African Retailers under the CFAO umbrella: La Grande Récré, L'Occitane en Provence, Cache Cache, Bonobo and Kaporal.

"The club of brands will include around twenty brands with sales outlets opening first and foremost in CFAO's shopping centers in eight African countries: Cameroon, Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal*." "CFAO acts as a catalyst for the development of international brands in Africa and as a springboard for brands that view the continent as a real growth lever. With our experience and our approach to consumption in Africa, we give them access to a high-growth market", explains Xavier Desjobert, Chief Executive Officer of CFAO Retail."