The Scaling Gap, in Beauty
In Accra, Victorine Sarr is managing customer orders while navigating shipping delays, rising supplier costs, and limited local manufacturing capacity. In London, Mimi Koné is building her beauty brand with closer proximity to retailers, investors, and international distribution networks. Both founders operate within the same global beauty industry, but not within the same systems of […]
The Lusaka Youth Are Building Their Own Scene
The third spaces, pop-ups, and pricing decisions behind a generation’s bid for cultural infrastructure.
Who Trains the Machines That See Africa?
The Sovereign Stack
As AI becomes the infrastructure beneath culture, African creators can no longer
The Hotels That Actually Know Where They Are
The Hotels That Actually Know Where They Are Cultural programming has become one of hospitality’s most overused promises. Here’s how to tell the difference between a hotel that has genuinely embedded itself in a place — and one that has simply dressed the lobby. Credit: HBD Principe – Oca Sundy Restaurant, Sundy Praia, Príncipe Island […]
Cotonou Knows Exactly What It’s Doing
Cotonou Knows Exactly What It’s Doing Amazone Statue, Cotonou, Benin. Photo: Présidence du Bénin. Every West African knows Cotonou, whether or not they have ever stopped to think about why. The auntie who goes for fabric knows it. The trader who crosses the border from Nigeria knows it. The goods that show up in Lagos […]
The Jersey Economy: Why Africa Is the Most Valuable Untapped Market in Sports Merchandise
There is a version of this story that begins at a football match. Maybe it is a World Cup qualifier
Market Entry Is Not a Mood Board
Market Entry Is Not a Mood Board Why Brands Mistake Aesthetics for Infrastructure and What Credibility Actually Requires Photo: Carlos Idun In recent years, several major fashion houses have staged shows and campaigns across the African continent. Runway presentations in Dakar and Marrakech. Campaign shoots in Lagos and along the Kenyan coast. Capsule collections developed […]
The Scaling Gap
Hanifa, Ami Colé, and what the industry’s love can’t build.
Bal d’Afrique, on African Ground
Byredo’s new campaign was shot in Accra with a West African cast, a Burkinabè choreographer and a creative team spanning the continent and its diaspora. It may be the most structurally ambitious fragrance campaign of the year. Photography by Philip-Daniel Ducasse for Byredo Byredo’s new Bal d’Afrique campaign was shot in Accra, Ghana, and built […]
The Value Problem: What a Dress Really Costs
Two women stood side by side at a worktable in Lisa Folawiyo’s Lagos studio, threading beads onto a dress from the upcoming collection