Lagos Fashion Week: All the Highlights from Day Five
Over the last four days, more than fifty African designers have showcased on the runway, presenting functional
Lagos Fashion Week: All the Highlights from Day Four
Day four of Lagos Fashion Week unfolded in layers of textures and colors, with designers leaning into movement and meaning through
How Colonial Morality Still Polices African Fashion
How Colonial Morality Still Polices African Fashion Akamba Warrior (Kenya): Image No. 10768. Courtesy of Penn Museum Archives. Before colonial rule, most communities wore practical, hand-made garments: woven cotton wrappers in West Africa; smocks and robes for traders and farmers; leather and beadwork in parts of the Sahel and southern Africa; wool and barkcloth where […]
Fashion as Faith at Harlem’s Annual Senegalese Bamba Day Parade
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 […]
Snatched Waists and Style Play: The Corsetification of Nigerian Fashion
Corsetification in Nigerian fashion is cinching itself into the heart of style, emerging from Lagos red carpets, owambes, and endless scrolls of Instagram and TikTok. It’s a waist, pulled tight, hyper-defined, framed by elaborate bustiers and couture-heavy tailoring that now defines one of the most visible aesthetics of Nigerian femininity. This isn’t just a trend, […]
Everyday Couture: Why Africa’s True Fashion Houses Sit on the Streets
Growing up in Africa, you feel the streets’ pulse long before you ever hear of Paris runways. On crowded roads where roasted plantain and petrol fumes mingle, a tailor’s shop hums with life. It’s a tiny space, bursting with wax prints, bogolan, kente, and lace — colors popping like a festival. A sewing machine […]
Sartorial Groundings: African Design at the Heart of Black Elegance
How do African dress traditions shape and inspire the possibilities of contemporary fashion and Black identity? In conjunction with the exhibition Superfine: Tailoring Black Style, Idelle Taye, founder of Guzangs, reflects and expands upon the rich relationship between sartorial expression and ancestral legacies across the African continent through the work of seven trailblazing contemporary designers. The Costume […]
Romzy Studio One Year Later: The Rise of an Iconic African Fashion Brand
In the ever-shifting tide of African fashion where voices rise, fall, and are too often silenced before they fully bloom, Romzy Studio has become a steady current. Not loud, but deeply rooted. Not formulaic, but unmistakable. One year after launching the Skinprint collection, Roméo Moukagny isn’t chasing applause. He’s cultivating a legacy. And that legacy […]
Cover, Don’t Conceal: Marième Mboup and the New Shape of African Modesty
Once considered the domain of religious and conservative values, modest fashion has undergone a dramatic transformation — becoming one of the most expressive and innovative style movements among African youths today. It is evident across major cultural capitals like Lagos, Dakar, and Addis Ababa, young Africans are reimagining what it means to dress modestly. Though […]
Threads of Influence III: The Sapeurs of Congo
Before a Sapeur steps into the street, the decision has already been made: to show up in the world not just dressed, but composed. Every detail is deliberate—the texture of the suit, the weight of a cane, the tilt of a hat. It’s a ritual of style, but also a quiet refusal. Because in Brazzaville […]