African fashion is in a moment of radical visibility. With it comes a responsibility: to document, archive, and build sustainable pathways for the designers shaping its future. Today, Guzangs launches Designer Profiles, a curated series dedicated to spotlighting the visionaries driving contemporary African fashion.
This inaugural installment explores the creative journeys, signature works, and cultural narratives of five standout talents: Florentina Agu of Hertunba, Lafalaise Dion, Aristide Loua of Kente Gentlemen, Sydney Nwakanma of Emeka Suits, and Roméo Moukagny of Romzy Studio. Each profile dives deep into their craft while creating a direct bridge between storytelling and commerce, allowing audiences to experience—and shop—their work in one place.
Florentina Agu of Hertunba
Florentina Agu is the founder of Hertunba, a sustainable luxury brand that bridges Nigerian heritage with contemporary silhouettes. Based in Lagos, Agu is known for sourcing indigenous fabrics such as aso-oke and adire directly from artisan cooperatives and merging them with modern, elegant cuts. Hertunba’s mission is to weave cultural narratives into expressive, empowering designs, with a strong focus on sustainability—upcycling nearly all off-cuts into new pieces or home décor. Her collections, including The Women Before Us, honor Nigerian history and feminine strength, while her work has been worn by the likes of Meagan Good and Jackie Aina. In 2024, Agu received the Veuve Clicquot Bold Future Award (Nigeria), cementing Hertunba as a rising force in African fashion.
Lafalaise Dion
Known as the “Queen of Cowries,” Ivorian designer Lafalaise Dion has built a brand rooted in African spirituality and cultural reclamation. Her elaborate handmade crowns, jewelry, and garments transform cowrie shells into powerful symbols of heritage and feminine energy, blending art and adornment. Dion champions sustainability through zero-waste techniques and crafts each piece by hand in Côte d’Ivoire. Her work gained global recognition when featured in Beyoncé’s Black Is King and later acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum for its Africa Fashion exhibition. With a philosophy of reclaiming tradition and designing with intention, Lafalaise Dion’s pieces are both cultural archives and spiritual statements.
Aristide Loua
Aristide Loua founded Kente Gentlemen in Abidjan to redefine modern menswear through an African lens. His designs merge handwoven West African textiles such as kente and bogolan with contemporary tailoring, celebrating color, craft, and cultural storytelling. Built on ethical, artisan-led production, Kente Gentlemen supports local weavers and tailors while reimagining heritage fabrics for global fashion. Loua’s work has been featured in Vogue and showcased worldwide from Paris to Shanghai Fashion Week. His collections—vivid explorations of identity and innovation—position Kente Gentlemen as a benchmark for African luxury.
Sydney Nwakanma of Emeka Suits
Sydney Nwakanma founded EMEKA Suits to merge sustainability, tailoring, and African ingenuity. The brand is built on upcycling, transforming secondhand textiles sourced in Africa into vibrant suits that combine West African prints with modern, gender-fluid cuts. EMEKA employs local tailors across the continent, creating jobs while promoting circular fashion. Known for its bold colors and “Business Unusual” suits, the label debuted at Berlin Fashion Week and has since gained international attention for turning discarded materials into luxury. Nwakanma’s vision is as much about social impact as it is about style, building a bridge between sustainability and African craftsmanship.
Romeo Moukagny of Romzy Studio
Gabonese-born, Senegal-based designer Roméo Moukagny has shaped Romzy Studio into a brand blending African heritage with avant-garde contemporary design. His daring silhouettes and cultural fusion have earned international attention, especially following the Skinprint campaign, which celebrated skin diversity and was featured in Vogue Italia. His now-iconic Skin Dress, inspired by vitiligo patterns, went viral and was worn by Ciara on the cover of Rolling Stone Africa. With a newly opened Dakar boutique and a philosophy of fashion as social transformation, Romzy Studio is carving out a powerful space in African luxury.
Samuel Boakye of Kwasi Paul
Samuel Boakye is a Ghanaian‑American designer whose label Kwasi Paul explores the intersections of diaspora identity and heritage. Splitting his time between New York and Accra, Boakye works with Ghanaian artisans to incorporate hand‑loomed fugu cloth and cowrie shell motifs into modern, fluid tailoring. His collections, including Market Symphonies and Amerikan Dreamin’, merge cultural memory with contemporary design. In 2025, Kwasi Paul’s work is being featured in the Costume Institute’s Superfine: Tailoring Black Style exhibition at The Met, marking him as a defining voice in contemporary African diasporic fashion.
A New Approach in Documenting African Fashion Stories
Designer Profiles marks a pivotal moment in Guzangs’ mission: to build a living archive of African fashion while actively sustaining the designers behind it. By merging editorial storytelling with curated commerce, each profile becomes both record and resource, amplifying voices too often marginalized in global fashion discourse and providing direct support to the ecosystems they represent.
Documenting these journeys does more than chronicle garments; it enriches our understanding of how culture, craft, and community converge on the runway. Each designer featured in this inaugural installment exemplifies sustainability, social impact, and creative excellence, forging a narrative that is as beautiful as it is transformative.
This is more than a series. It is a commitment to cultural preservation, creative ambition, and the belief that African fashion’s stories deserve to be seen, celebrated, and sustained on the world stage.
