What Is New African Fashion?

When one usually thinks of fashion, the big couture designers names enters their minds. European fashion used to be the locale when thinking where the designers reign from. Little has been revealed on most of the inspiration and resourcing that derives from Africa. With so many designers out there with so little mention in the US, is it safe to assume that African Fashion is new? Absolutely not.

During a Fashion Forum with the fashionable likes of Arise magazine's editor and author of her new book New African Fashion Helen Jennings, fashion designer Mimi Plange and the fabulous duo behind the Mataano lable Ayaan and Idyl Mohallim, moderated by Enyinne Owunwanne, curator for Hertiage 1960, they have generously given their personal insight to their experiences, design inspirations, the business aspects, history and future of what African Fashion is.

In Helen Jenning's book, New African Fashion, which is the first of its kind, she touches on the topics of designers and models from Africa along with a brief history on the traditional ways of dress and how it has evolved to become familiar to the West as fashion inspirations and design. Her book also features the faces of the African model roster as well along with fabulous styles and trends from today's leading and emerging designers.

The newness to African Fashion is its approach to the West as a collboration of traditional garb with Western influence. There are many designers who have taken on the idea of going forward with creating their own twists to traditional textiles, silhouettes and fabrics.

For example, take A. Sauvage. With quite a few fashion hats under his name, he has evolved the way the modern man dresses by partnering with a Ghanaian kente weaver. That partnership garnered his own "indigenous fabric" which in turn became a double breasted silk tuxedo with intricate design detail that is now recognized as his major look. 

 The Mohallim twins of Mataano took their inspiration for their SS 2010 collection from Algerian tribal women who become dancers at a young age, who would adorn themselves with their wealth of gold around their bodies. Their collection refelected that by oversized jewelry, long skirts and shapeless dresses. Their approach to how they see women dressed is feminine and attractive. Their aim is to redefine what African style means and share all that Africa has to offer in that aspect.

The innovator, Mimi Plange has sparked a whole new way to look for design inspiration by being intrigued with the scarification of Africans. Scarification is to Africa as tatooing is to modern America today. It is a way of tribal indentification. With the beautiful patterns of the scars, Mimi has been able to innovatively create beautiful designs in her Scarred Perfection collection with the sticthing  and ornamentation that mimicks the scars on the bodies of Africans.

When we look to the faces of most of the labels developing from African designers, even the model casting has been appreciated by most who feel that for a while the industry was "white-washed". Now with so many fashion shows happening through the continent and abroad where African desingers can showcase, there's a common trend now seeing African women grace the runways, campaigns and even the cover of major fashion publications. 

African fashion has always existed. It's just the "pigeon holed" outlook to how we as Americans saw it before the wake of major productions like the famous ARISE show and the now NY Africa Fashion Week.

Many established designers have always looked to Africa for inspiration, fabrics and models over time. From the likes of Gucci, Marc Jacobs and Miyake, they have all turned to the Continent for textiles. Even Puma paired with Kehinde Wiley for his take on how he incorporated African fabrics to portraits of atheletes during the hype of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

From past years, to now and even in the future Africa has been and will always be looked upon for inspiration because with so many different traditions, tribes and countries, there's alot that the West hasn't seen. With that being said, African Fashion will always be New as it will forever evolve the industry. There are so many designers hailing from London, Paris and Africa who have yet blazed the Americas with their take on current trends and styles. We just have to stay tuned.