The Next Wave of African Designers Taking Their Place on the Global Stag

FOR too long, fashion’s gatekeepers in Western nations have largely ignored the abundance of ideas and creativity brimming out of African countries, where designers have been toiling away without recognition outside of their local communities.

While there is still a ways to go, there has been a slow but steady influx of platforms geared toward exposing these talents to a wider audience. From online concept store The Folklore, which distributes luxury and emerging designer brands from Africa, to Orange Mentorship, an initiative that provides mentorship of young fashion entrepreneurs in Africa, many of the continent’s designers are finally starting to get their due.

Among the most recent success stories are arguably Thebe Magugu, the designer who grew up in the city of Kimberley in South Africa’s Northern Cape and just launched his first e-commerce shop, and Kenneth Ize, whose reinterpretation of traditional West African fabrics