Africa’s Fashion Month
Across the African continent October was designated the month of Fashion. From Addis, Ababa, to Lagos, and Cape Town the organizers of Fashion week are fast at work planning weeklong events each October to celebrate the creations by African designers. But as of this year like the rest of the world things took a different turn.
African designers like all independent designers during the global pandemic of Covid-19 are relying on all of the marketing support that they can get. Also in an emerging industry the role of the fashion show which promoted designers as an essential part of attracting customers to buy from Africa has become a problem in 2020.
Lucille Booyzen and her team played a pivotal role as coordinators of the South Africa Fashion Week for over 20 years, enlisting it as the oldest fashion week in Africa. Building the South African fashion landscape to become the household name it has become with a value of $1.36 billion which helped to promote a wider apparel industry. According to usual routine South African designers and fashion enthusiasts would congregate in a physical location, but Covid-19 restrictions has promoted the team to deliver a virtual storefront for this year's showcase.
With a scheduled 27 digital fashion shows scheduled in South Africa from October 22-24, which was followed by the SAFW show at the Crystal Court at the Mall of Africa in Waterfall City, Minfrand. Another feature which was scheduled for November 27-29 of the SAFW Pop Up Shop also to be held at the Crystal Court malls.
Crossing over to East Africa in Ethiopia Mahler Teklemariam the founder of Africa Hub weighed in on the practicability of going digital for Fashion Week. Being that this would've been the 10th anniversary of the Hub of Africa’s fashion show, Teklemariam envisioned a big celebration but with the devastating effects of the pandemic has left Ethiopian designers in a place of vulnerability for the grand hurrah. By August it was made clear that about 30 designers planned to participate in the event were struggling with the production as challenges based on the COVID-19 restrictions as well as a challenging political climate, leaving the team to then make a difficult decision of calling for a postponement.
Hub of Africa is not the only fashion platform that planned to celebrate a great milestone in 2020. The producer of Lagos Fashion Week “House Styles Files” has been hosting fashion shows in Nigeria since 2008, 2011 began the annual seasonal fashion show which would make the 10th anniversary of the Fashion Week as well. Over the year Nigeria has promoted local craftsmanship which provided the opportunity for designers to remain relevant during the COVID struggles. With the team using initiatives such as Woven Thread exhibitions and the Fashion Focus Fund to continue the conversation during the global pandemic.
Convinced that the digital impact will continue, coordinators of Africa Fashion Month assigned to specific countries believed that after COVID, having the ability to return back to traditional formats the digital component will be here to stay and most likely play a pivotal role in the building and delivering of the events.
By Nathalia Lampkin