By Wedaeli Chiversi BBC News
March 2, 2024
Image credit: Getty Images
Laduma Ngusokolo can pinpoint the exact moment he came of age and share how it influenced his unique fashion sense.
In 2004, he spent a month in the wilderness with a group of young people from his community, all part of a traditional coming-of-age ceremony observed by the Xhosa people of South Africa.
According to tradition, Ngusokolo and his fellow practitioners were to return to society in new clothes after a month of training.
“It was a very English gentlemanly look – a typical hunter cap or hat and jacket,” Ngusokolo told the BBC.
But Ngusokolo decided to create her own costume from scratch that better reflected Xhosa culture.
An outcast among his fellow monks, known as “amakwaras,” from his boyhood he “wore many stripes, with accent colors around the calves, neck and chest.”
Having personally witnessed the lack of premium Xhosa-inspired clothing companies, Ngusokolo began developing MaXhosa Africa, a designer brand focused on knitwear and colorful Xhosa patterns.
Image caption: Laduma Ngusokolo’s designs are rooted in his Xhosa culture
Since then, MaXhosa has been endorsed by Beyonce, worn by US musician Alicia Keys, featured in Vogue magazine and is due to present a new collection at Paris Fashion Week on Sunday.
And Ngsoukolo is not alone: several high-end African designers have burst onto the global fashion scene in recent years.
Since 2019, three South Africans — Thebe Magugu, Lukhanyo Mudingi and Sindiso Khumalo — have won the prestigious LVMH Prize, which recognises emerging talent. The following year, Beyoncé’s Africa-themed film “Black Is King” introduced the continent’s iconic brand to Western audiences.
According to a 2023 report by the United Nations cultural agency UNESCO, Africa “has all the potential to become the next generation of global fashion leaders.”
Image caption: Imane Aissie founded his brand in 2004 and his creations have been worn by Hollywood’s biggest stars, like Zendaya.
The past month has borne some weight out UNESCO’s prediction, with MaXhosa and brands from Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon showing new collections at the industry’s “big four” fashion weeks: Paris, Milan, London and New York.
After the Paris show, ballet dancer-turned-designer Imane Ayisi told the BBC that “African fashion is becoming more and more visible at European fashion weeks”.
“Six years ago, there were no African designers at official Western fashion weeks,” he says.
Ayisi, the son of a Cameroonian boxing champion and a beauty queen, dressed models down the Paris runway in layers of taffeta and satin that incorporated kente fabric, a hand-woven textile from Ghana, and traditional fabrics from Burkina Faso.
Image source: Shutterstock
Image caption: Imane Ayisi’s latest collection combines materials such as satin with traditional African textile designs.
“My main inspiration is the way women in many African countries, mainly West and Central Africa, wrap simple pieces of fabric around their waists, sometimes with several layers, to create a kind of skirt,” says the designer.
But why are these African styles and textiles becoming so popular recently?
Frederica Brooksworth, CEO of the International Council for African Fashion Education (CIAFE), says there are many reasons for this, but one is the 2020 coronavirus pandemic.
“With everything happening online and not many people being able to attend events like fashion week, this was a fantastic opportunity for African voices to really be heard,” she told the BBC.
She also points to the rapid rise of the Afrobeat genre, the growth of successful fashion shows within Africa, such as Lagos Fashion Week, and the influence of diaspora creators.
Image caption: Tolu Coker’s latest collection pays homage to West African street vendors
Tolu Coker, an emerging designer born in the UK to Nigerian parents, was one of the few diaspora models to show off her roots at London Fashion Week last month.
Her latest collection pays homage to the tenacity of West African street vendors, who sell their wares from kiosks or brave traffic jams to hail passing drivers.
“My mum was a peddler when she was younger and that’s a big part of her story,” said Coker, whose fans include Rihanna and Afrobeat star Tiwa Savage.
Image caption: A market stall was set up at the end of the runway at Tru Coker’s London show.
Coker’s models walked the Mayfair catwalk in sharp tailored outfits, raffia bags and chic multi-coloured suitcases that paid homage to the business woman.
While defending Nigerian culture, Coker points out that expatriate designers like herself are in a “privileged position” and enjoy opportunities that are often inaccessible to designers on the African continent.
According to UNESCO, among the challenges facing designers working in Africa are poor infrastructure and a lack of formal education and investment.
Ngusokolo backs up this assessment, telling the BBC that “luxury fashion in Africa is a very lonely industry.”
“At first I felt like I couldn’t get any support. I went to banks and government funding agencies for help, but most of the funding was for people in the mining, food and agriculture industries.”
Bobby Kolade, founder of Ugandan brand Buzigahir, who showed his collection at Berlin Fashion Week, expressed similar frustration.
“I don’t think our government and leaders understand the value of small businesses. If we’re creating 3,000 jobs at a time, they’ll be on our side,” said Kolade, whose mix of fashion and activism has garnered media attention around the world.
Image caption: Buzigahir’s latest collection is inspired by workers in Kampala
The market for luxury clothing is expanding in Africa as the middle class grows, but UNESCO says designer brands are currently only affordable for “a very wealthy minority”.
Some African governments are also taking steps to support their home-grown designers: the Kenyan government, for example, helped set up the Kenya Fashion Council, and an initiative by the Central Bank of Nigeria is funding several Nigerian designers.
Correid emphasizes there are other positives as well.
For him, Kampala, the capital of Uganda, is a source of inspiration.
Buzigahir’s latest collection has come from security guards, tree surgeons and farmers in the city, who Kolade says “don’t know how much they have stolen”.
Image caption: Fashion weeks from Lagos to Johannesburg show the continent has a growing middle class willing to spend on luxury brands.
His words reflect a common ethos among African designers: keeping African culture at the heart of their work, even as they seek to capture the attention of a Western-led global fashion industry.
Twenty years after Amakulwala’s fashion debut, Ngusokolo is putting the finishing touches on its Paris Fashion Week show and preparing to open its first store in New York.
But Ngthokolo insists South Africa has always been his “priority”.
“The loyalty and love that employees show is incredible,” he says, “and it’s a great form of sustainability for a business.”
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