On the 4th of October 2021, under the leadership of Roberta Annan, the Impact Fund For African Creatives (IFFAC) was launched in Paris, and in attendance were a host of major stakeholders of the African and global creative industry. As part of the events at the launch of the Impact Fund For African Creatives (IFFAC), there was the unveiling of the Ambassadors Collection, in collaboration with African Fashion Foundation, was launched.
The Ambassadors Collection is an initiative of African Fashion Foundation in order to collaborate with 5 designers to create a capsule collection. These 5 designers attended the recent Industry Retreat that took place in May 2021. The main aims of the project were to address the key takeaways from the Industry Retreat. The aims included the following:
- To support and Nurture African creativity
- To truly foster and cultivate cooperation amongst fashion brands across Africa.
- To implement AFF’s promises from the retreat and further seed AFF as an industry leader and stake holder in the African Fashion scene.
The 5 designers on the Ambassadors Collection roster include Adebayo Oke – Lawal, Adama Amanda Ndiaye, Eli Kuame, Alina Bello and Emmanuel Okoro. The Ambassadors Collective is made up of designers who have in the own right established themselves firmly in the African Fashion Industry. They have made their mark ever since their introduction in the industry and are paving the way for people like them. We introduce to you, the Ambassadors Collective!
AMBASSADORS COLLECTIVE DESIGNER PROFILE – ADEBAYO OKE – LAWAL OF ORANGE CULTURE NG
The first designer on the roster of the #AmbassadorCollective is Adebayo Oke – Lawal. Adebayo has been designing from a young age and has grown in the fashion industry ever since he established his brand Orange Culture some ten years ago. He has worked with several Nigerian Designers and this helped him to propel his unique vision of fashion into reality.
Since starting the label and an official runway debut at Lagos Fashion Week in 2011, he has been hard at work to try and shine a light on the work that Orange Culture does. For Adebayo, Orange Culture is more than a clothing line. It is a “movement” that covers universal silhouettes with an Africa touch to a creative class of men.
AMBASSADORS COLLECTIVE DESIGNER PROFILE – ADAMA PARIS OF ADAMA PARIS STUDIO
Senegalese fashion designer Adama Paris is our next designer on the roster of the Ambassadors Collective. Having left a job in Europe to add to the narrative of the African Design space, Adama Paris has since been a force to reckon with as she adds to the story of visibility of African Fashion through her works and projects. She has in the past struggled for mainstream acceptance, and at the beginning of her journey, raising capital for her business was difficult.
In order to expand the visibility of African design, Adama created the Dakar Fashion Week exhibition and by 2012, ten years after the launch of the exhibition, it had attracted 30 designers from 9 countries in Africa and Asia, with audience members spanning across the world.
AMBASSADORS COLLECTIVE DESIGNER PROFILE – ELIE KUAME OF MAISON ELI KUAME
On our roster of the Ambassadors Collective, we have designer Eli Kuame. Growing up in Ivory Coast with Ivorian and Lebanese origin, Designer Eli Kuame soon realised his passion and interest in refined fashion that he found was a shared love with his mother.
After four years of Artisanal apprenticeship, he joined a bridal house where he took his first steps as an assistant. H quickly noticed for his originality that allowed him to experiment in various Parisian workshops and eventually start his eponymous brand, ELI KUAME.
AMBASSADORS COLLECTIVE DESIGNER PROFILE – ALIMA BELLO OF BELLO EDU
Situated in West Africa, Ghana, we have designer Alima Bello as the next designer of the Ambassadors Collective. Alima was raised in a working class home. Her upbringing nurtured and encouraged her entrepreneurial skills, and because of this, she channeled all that she had learned to explore her creativity in the fashion world.
She attributes her Nigerian and Ghanaian heritage as playing major role in her flair for aesthetics. Alima started designing and creating clothes for the people around her in 2008, and by word of mouth, her brand Bello Edu has grown to service Africa and beyond.
AMBASSADORS COLLECTIVE DESIGNER PROFILE – EMMANUEL OKORO OF EMMY KASBIT
To complete the roster of designers part of the Ambassadors Collective is Emmanuel Okoro. After launching his brand in 2014, Emmy Kasbit has taken the African Fashion industry by storm. The brand was birthed out of its passion to cloth the unconventional man and woman who likes to think outside the box and who are willing to defend their outfit as being deliberate and not accidental.
Known particularly for clean aesthetics and structured pieces, Emmanuel paints the picture of a fashion-embraced man and woman who build their outfit to fit into the environment.
Stay tuned on our socials and subscribe to the newsletter to be updated on when the collection is set to release. You can also keep up with the designers and their journey in making this collection a successful one on Africa Fashion Foundation socials and their personal socials as well.