Tag african culture

ABUJA, Nigeria — Africa’s fashion industry is growing rapidly to meet local and international demand but inadequate investment limits its potential, UNESCO said Thursday in a report released during Lagos Fashion Week.

Currently valued at $15.5 billion worth of exports annually, the earnings from the continent’s fashion industry could triple over a decade with the right investment and infrastructure, according to UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay, who launched the organization’s first report on fashion in Africa in Nigeria’s economic hub of Lagos.

With a young population of 1.3 billion people set to double by 2050, the continent’s fashion industry has also proven to be both “a powerful lever for the promotion of cultural diversity (and) also a way to empower young people and women,” said Azoulay.

Across the continent, fashion continues to grow on various fronts – including in movies and films – in the form of textiles, garments as well

Do you know about African fashion? When Kenyan-born stylist and fashion blogger Koya Nyangi moved to Denver, she found that most people weren’t aware of the vibrant, creative fashion scene in Africa.

“There’s so much good stuff happening there,” she says, “and no one knows about it.”

Nyangi lived in London, Dubai and Bangalore before coming to Denver in 2018. After writing a series of articles called “A Hundred Days of Denver Fashion” on her website, Let Me Show You Different, and scrolling through Instagram looking at local fashion scene-makers, she saw an opportunity to bring awareness to what was missing.

She took it upon herself to become what she calls a “cultural ambassador” and bring African culture and fashion to Denver, starting with a shop-and-sip event in 2021 with Kenyan luxury jewelry designer Adele Dejak.

Nyangi, who now bills herself as CEO, founder and style curator