Ananse Center for Design Opens in Lagos: A New Integrated Hub for African Creatives

Ananse Center for Design Opens in Lagos: A New Integrated Hub for African Creatives reception

For years, Nigeria’s creative industry has dazzled the world with talent and imagination, yet struggled to translate that brilliance into sustainable business growth. From fashion to furniture, countless designers and innovators have been constrained by inadequate infrastructure, limited access to global markets, and deep dependence on imported materials. The result: a sector overflowing with ideas […]

Trans-continental Collaborations Opened New Markets for African Fashion — Why Did They Pause?

Trans-continental Collaborations Opened New Markets for African Fashion — Why Did They Pause? 1319 Happy CPD 5 2560x1846 1 e1758082958244

The most transformative moments in African fashion over the past decade have been defined by strategic collaborations that elevated the industry to unprecedented heights. Yet this remarkable ascent was only possible because African designers first established an unshakeable foundation: placing culture at the very heart of their creative vision. What distinguishes African fashion from its […]

Fashion as Faith at Harlem’s Annual Senegalese Bamba Day Parade

Fashion as Faith at Harlem's Annual Senegalese Bamba Day Parade shh3

Every year on July 28th, Harlem becomes the stage for the Senegalese, and more importantly, the Murid diaspora in New York City for Bamba Day, a march honoring Cheikh Ahmadu Bamba’s teachings and excellence. The streets of 116th and 7th Avenue resonate with chants of Allah (swt) and Bamba, creating a communal presence that publicly […]

Big Four vs Africa: Fashion Week’s Contrasting Realities

Big Four vs Africa: Fashion Week’s Contrasting Realities BAR 300 1

Fashion weeks have always been about more than the clothes. Yes, they’re displays of style, but they’re also where global trends are born, where billions of dollars change hands, and where designers make statements that ripple far beyond the runway. A single collection can spark conversations about politics, identity, or sustainability. In Lagos or Paris, […]

Introducing Guzangs Designer Profiles: Archiving and Amplifying African Fashion

Introducing Guzangs Designer Profiles: Archiving and Amplifying African Fashion Designer Profile Hertunba Resized for Web

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 […]

Beauty in Hard Times: Africa’s Lipstick Effect

Beauty in Hard Times: Africa’s Lipstick Effect Carlos Idun Tawiah 1

What do women hold onto when everything else feels uncertain? Across Africa, one answer rises again and again: beauty rituals. In times of economic pressure, when inflation climbs and currencies wobble, many women continue to invest in small but powerful acts of adornment—braids, gele, fragrance oils, or a few yards of fabric. Economists call it […]

Dakar Sound Project: How Senegal’s Youth Are Remixing Fashion, Music, and Memory

Two men in vibrant, stylish West African streetwear posing with a trumpet in a sunlit Dakar alleyway. One man wears a mustard yellow patterned suit while the other is in a light-colored outfit with a bold orange patterned wrap, capturing the fusion of jazz music and contemporary Senegalese fashion.

Photographer Khaled Fhemy Mamah and stylist Hélène Redolfi created Dakar Sound Project to document how the city’s music culture shows up in what people wear. Shot at Maison de la Culture Urbaine, Torobee Distribution (a vinyl archive), and across Dakar’s streets, the editorial pairs models with instruments—saxophones, trumpets, synthesizers—and clothes from local designers working in […]

WORN OUT: The True Cost of Your Donated Clothes

WORN OUT: The True Cost of Your Donated Clothes thrift1

Part I — The History of a Heap Kantamanto doesn’t sleep. It breathes, wheezes, and heaves under the weight of foreign fabrics. Bales arrive daily—tightly bound, often soaked in chemical stench or rainwater from cargo ships—marked “donation” in faded marker. They are not gifts. They are transactions. They are waste. And they are profitable for […]