We’ve selected a list of recognised African fashion designers who opened the doors to a new generation of designers. The mix of African fabrics with Western fashion elements is a feature of all five fashion designers, but each of them has its own distinctive style.

Chris Seydou

Chris Seydou (1949 - 1994) was a Malian fashion designer who popularizes the bogolanfini – a traditional Malian fabric dyed with vegetables and mud, also used in fine art and interior design. This fabric is distinguished by its brown and white geometric patterns. It is believed to absorb nyama, a mystic energy released while hunting and during ritual ceremonies. [1] Seydou was the first to promote it in international fashion. [2] While respecting its ritual significance, he carefully designed and marketed Western-style clothes in West Africa, Europe and the United States.

Lamine Kouyaté

Lamine Kouyaté is a Malian fashion designer based in Paris who developed Xuly Bët – a line of clothing designed around the concept of reuse. He recycles clothes from flea markets and thrift stores to create new garments. Each item is a raw unfinished garment with traces of wear, ragged seams, and frayed edges where threads hold garments together. [2] Unlike many mainstream fashion designers, his collections do not only serve for one season or cycle. The conceptual designs of Kouyaté echo the global concerns about excess, overconsumption, and ethics of fashion. Also, his fashion designs questions the complexities of culture, whether local or global, beyond or within the fashion system.

Oumou Sy

Oumou Sy is a renowned Senegalese costume and fashion designer who founded the Carnival of Dakar. She is not only known for her fantastic produced fashion events but also for the combination of Haute Couture with social and economic involvement. [1] Her fashion design depicts an expression of African modernity that critically explores the past and present to offer a future in constant dialogue with its origins. Sy puts fashion at the same level of fine art with her spectacular creations that are often excessively decorated, rotating the beautiful with the bold, and which turn their wearers into goddess-like symbols of African power and liberation.

Tetteh Adzedu

Tetteh Adzedu is a Ghanaian fashion designer who focuses on preserving and reviving African tunics for men. He founded the menswear label Adzedu of Shapes in Accra, where he also established a fashion school. [1] His embroidered tunics with fluid lines affirm the personality along with an authentic African fashion. Adzedu uses traditional colors, such as pale blue, white, or cream and sleek geometric embroidery. He designs clothes by keeping in mind a social dimension, whether they are worn by high class clients or regular consumers.

Alphadi

Seidnaly Sidhamed better known as Alphadi is a notable Nigerien fashion designer who founded the Federation Africaine de Couture. In 1998, he launched the first Festival International de la Mode Africaine (FIMA) which was located in Niger. [2] This landmark African fashion exhibition allowed African and international designers to come together. Since then, the event has been going on every two years. Alphadi finds his inspiration in the diversity of African cultures. His fashion style balance African identities with Western influences where he gathered his first experiences.

Sources

[1] New African Fashion by Helen Jennings, Prestel, 2011

[2] African Fashion, Global Styles by Victoria Rovine, Indiana University Press, 2014