Why Africans should buy African fashion
A few years back, many Africans were proud to quickly announce their outfit because they were ‘foreign’ designers however, the narrative is gradually changing. Africans are beginning to appreciate and recognize the talent of African Fashion designers.
Some factors limited the African fashion industry some of which were;
- Many African Designers did not have access to top-notch equipment/machines to bring their illustrated designs to perfect reality.
- They were incapacitated to supply a large number of orders because they lacked the production capacity to produce in large numbers. Unlike fast-fashion designers like Shien, Zara, amongst others.
- The fashion constitution is not taken seriously. This has affected African designers at large. Some global fashion designers take African designs to produce in massive volume because they have both the manpower and funding to do so.
Why you should buy African fashion.
Africans are bold, outspoken, sometimes loud, and ’bubbly’ by nature. Africa designers have been able to infuse ’Africaness’ into designs. Recently there are quite a number of fashion manufacturers ready to produce large numbers of orders.
Having spoken with a fashion enthusiast; He said the reason Africans don’t wear African fashion is that a lot of us have not purged our minds from colonialism. For him, it all starts from the mind; we should see ourselves more than the world sees us.
Apart from beauty and aesthetics when you buy African brands, you strengthen the economy in such an impactful way. Let’s see a scenario where you buy 80% of your wears from African brands, employment had been created to make your outfits thereby creating a sustainable African environment.
As I earlier mentioned, the narrative is gradually changing, a lot of African celebrities are beginning to associate themselves with our unique designers and smooth tailoring. Burna Boy, a Nigerian singer and rapper. He is one of the biggest and most successful African artists with a Grammy Award. He once wore a Nigerian design; Kenneth Ize for a Coachella performance. More often than not, Burna boy is styled by Romani Ogulu; a Nigerian stylist.
Chimamanda Adichie a writer and storyteller take pride in Africa and every good thing that comes with it. She is mostly seen wearing African infused apparel to big platforms.
Israel Adesanya is a Nigerian-born New Zealand professional mixed martial artist, kickboxer, and boxer with multiple championships in all three disciplines. Israel uses a Nigerian stylist Ugo Mozie.
Let us link you up with some of African top designers;