Inside Oshobor: Where Heritage, Healing, and Haute Craft Collide
In 2020, during one of the hardest periods of his life, Peter Odion sat quietly in his Benin City workshop, mending torn fabric by hand. What began as therapy would soon become a signature. Stitch by stitch, he transformed pain into process, and process into fashion. That quiet moment laid the foundation for Oshobor, the […]
WORN OUT: The True Cost of Your Donated Clothes
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 […]
WORN OUT: A Series on Africa and Secondhand Clothing
A three-part Guzangs series on the secondhand clothing trade and the African economies absorbing it. An estimated 15 million used garments enter Ghana every week, most of them shipped from the UK, the US, and China, and a global secondhand trade now worth more than five billion dollars a year treats the continent as its […]
Prints of a Place: Banke Kuku’s Lagos-Born Language of Luxury
The designer Banke Kuku. Photo credit: courtesy of Banke Kuku. Banke Kuku is shaping contemporary luxury through a signature fusion of Nigerian heritage and modern print innovation—an approach rooted in her culture and a steadfast commitment to sustainability. In her vision, luxury extends beyond mere fabric or form—it becomes a narrative: the way a print […]
Inside Africa Basel: A New Stage for African Contemporary Voices
Africa Basel’s inaugural edition ran from June 18–22, 2025, alongside Art Basel, transforming the Ackermannshof courtyard in Basel’s St. Johanns-Vorstadt into a dedicated hub for contemporary African art. Nearly twenty galleries participated, offering collectors, curators, and the public an immersive look at painting, sculpture, photography, installation, and digital media. A curated VIP preview on opening […]
Luxury Dreams, Local Struggles: The Price of African Fashion Today
African fashion has been experiencing a delightful renaissance. From Lagos to Abidjan, Dakar to Nairobi, designers are capturing global attention with their creativity, craftsmanship, and cultural storytelling. But beneath the glamour, many African consumers are voicing a growing concern: the escalating cost of homegrown fashion is driving them out of the market. As inflation and […]
Waste Not, Wear More: African Designers and Artists Upcycle the Future
As the global fashion industry reckons with its massive environmental impact, Africa is quietly leading a creative revolution — one where waste is not discarded but reborn. On this World Environment Day, we turn the spotlight to a growing community of African designers and artists transforming textile scraps, plastic, and secondhand clothing into vibrant works […]
A Decade of Design: Roselyn Silva on Intentional Elegance and Her São Tomé Roots
At the United Nations: Fashion, Culture, and the Urgency of Collective Action
This week, the UN Fashion & Lifestyle Network convened its annual meeting at United Nations Headquarters in New York. Hosted by the United Nations Office for Partnerships and the Fashion Impact Fund —a program of PVBLIC Foundation in collaboration with the UN Sustainable Fashion Alliance and supported by Lenzing, this edition of the UN Fashion […]
Inside Éki Kéré: The Brand Reclaiming Raffia, Masquerade, and Meaning
In an industry obsessed with velocity: new drops, new aesthetics, the endless sprint for the next big thing—Abasiekeme Ukanireh dares to move differently. She has become one of the most sought-after designers on the continent, renowned for her exquisite craftsmanship that blends vernacular materials and transforms the mundane into the extraordinary. As evident as it […]