<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Nike this week added New Balance and Skechers to the list of athletic wear companies it says has stolen the &#8220;game-changing&#8221; patented Flyknit technology that Nike claims it spent more than a decade developing in order to cut down on waste while making lightweight yet supportive running shoes.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



In two separate federal lawsuits filed in Massachusetts and California, respectively, Nike claims New Balance and Skechers are infringing on the company’s patents and producing shoes using Flyknit, a specific knitted fiber used to make the &#8220;upper&#8221; of shoes, or the part above the sole surrounding the foot.



Nike claims New Balance stole the technology for use in its Tekela, FuelCell, Fresh Foam and Furon lines, and that Skechers is using it to make its Slip-Ins, Ultra Flex and Glide Step shoes, among others.



Nike asserts it told New Balance it was illegally using patented materials and that the company &#8220;refused&#8221; to stop using Flyknit and claims New Balance &#8220;only escalated the scope of its infringing activities” — and Nike also claims this isn’t the first time Skehers has stolen its technology.



Nike has asked a judge to block the sales of New Balance and Skechers it says utilize the patented technology and is seeking an unspecified &#8220;award of damages.&#8221;



New Balance did not respond to&nbsp;Forbes’&nbsp;request for comment Tuesday but said in a statement to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nike-new-balance-skechers-lawsuit-flyknit/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CBS News</a>&nbsp;that “Nike does not own the exclusive right to design and produce footwear by traditional manufacturing methods that have been used in the industry for decades.&#8221;



A representative for Skechers said the company does not comment on pending litigation.



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tangent">TANGENT</h2>



Nike has also sued Adidas, Puma and Lululemon for allegedly stealing the same technology.&nbsp;<a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/nike-adidas-settle-two-separate-164108630.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Adidas settled</a>&nbsp;its series of patent disputes in 2022, as did&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bizjournals.com/portland/news/2018/10/10/judge-denies-pumas-motion-to-dismiss-nike-lawsuit.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Puma</a>&nbsp;in 2020. Nike&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/qai/2023/02/06/nike-is-suing-lululemon-over-patent-infringementagain-heres-what-investors-need-to-know-about-the-war-between-these-athletic-apparel-giants/">sued Lululemon</a>&nbsp;earlier this year, claiming the textile knitting process used in making Lulu’s Chargefeel Mid, Chargefeel Low, Blissfeel and Strongfeel shoes was also stolen from Flyknit patents. That case is ongoing.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



New York University&#8217;s Center for Sustainable Business in 2016 used Nike&#8217;s Flyknit technology for a case study on sustainability.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.stern.nyu.edu/sites/default/files/assets/documents/Nike_Carly_04.2017%20-%20Copy.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The study</a>&nbsp;called Flyknit a &#8220;fundamental breakthrough in sustainable innovation&#8221; that met the athletic demands of a comfortable, high-performing sneaker while also reducing manufacturing waste. After more than 10 years and 200 prototypes, Nike developed its patented method to use one continuous woven thread to make a shoe instead of gluing and stitching multiple pieces of material together. By cutting down on wasted scraps and reducing the number of materials used, the company was able to save 3.5 million pounds of waste and cut its manufacturing waste by 80%, according to NYU.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-big-number">BIG NUMBER</h2>



182 million. That&#8217;s how many plastic bottles New York University says have been diverted from landfills by Nike since they started using recycled polyester in Flyknit shoes.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-crucial-quote">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h2>



&#8220;Nike’s Flyknit shoe is the most groundbreaking sneaker innovation in over 40 years,&#8221; NYU&#8217;s study said.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-forbes-valuation">FORBES VALUATION</h2>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/phil-knight/?list=rtb/&amp;sh=6279b1041dcb">Phil Knight</a>, the co-founder of Nike, has a $43.1 billion estimated net worth. He retired as chairman of Nike in June 2016 after 52 years at the company. The founder and former CEO of Lululemon,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/chip-wilson/?list=rtb/&amp;sh=7529dc547068">Chip Wilson,</a>&nbsp;is worth an estimated $6.1 billion and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/jim-davis/?list=rtb/&amp;sh=6ea9ff9b5fab">Jim Davis</a>, chairman and owner of New Balance, is worth an estimated $5 billion.

Melbourne Fashion Festival: Streetstyle

Nike Claims New Balance And Skechers Stole Technology For Sustainable Shoes In New Lawsuit

Growing up poor in Ghana, Kwaku Boateng Brommon had to sell water to make ends meet. The handmade bespoke suits he now designs for the country’s affluent and powerful tell a tale of hardship and tenacity.



Not many can go from selling sachets of water in a remote village in Ghana at the age of nine to having a private audience with the president of their country in the same lifetime. But that is exactly what happened to Kwaku Boateng Brommon.



He vividly remembers the day he walked into what is essentially Ghana’s Oval Office at the presidential residence in Accra, with a handful of bespoke suits made specifically for President Nana Akufo-Addo.



The moment, forever etched in his memory, was a turning point for the young entrepreneur whose trajectory to the top of the Ghanaian fashion industry has been all but conventional.



“Sitting in his office I had a flashback to when I was a kid standing in the market selling my pure water and I was like ‘How did I get here?’ A village boy sitting in the office of the president was impossible and the story played like a movie in my mind,” recalls Brommon.



And like all great dreams, Brommon faced impossible odds. The first roadblock he had to overcome was poverty.



“I grew up with my grandparents and as far as I can remember, I never met my mum until I was in my teens because she had left for London. My dad was a teacher in Nigeria and he came back to Ghana when I was nine. Growing up was tough because I was poor and I had to fend for anything I needed. After school, I would go home, go to the fridge, pack my water and travel to the markets to sell.



“I would do two trips before I [returned] home in the evening and the cash I got selling water is what I would use as pocket money at school. I did that for six years and I also went to the farm with my dad to plant crops and we would harvest the food and take it to the local market to sell. It was tough and I felt like living in Ghana was torture,” says Brommon.



The first chance he got to beat poverty came when he moved to London, United Kingdom (UK), at the age of 14 to live with his mother; and the whole world opened up to Brommon.



Wanting to put to good use the hard work and tenacity he had learned in Ghana, he decided to drop out of college and pursue his passion – fashion.



“From an early age, I always liked to look good and keep my clothes clean. I remember asking myself ‘What is the closest area of work [that would] pull me into this passion of mine?’ I thought I should find a job in a clothing store, which I did.”



By 18, he was working for a retail shop in London, staying on in the industry for about 12 years. 



Every time he would get a break from work, he would roam the West End in London, a popular cultural hub with retail stores, restaurants and a theater district, for hours, window-shopping and studying the impeccable materials used for crafting high-end wear. After stints with luxury brands such as Tommy Hilfiger, Hackett London, Paul Smith and Alexander McQueen, Brommon realized that he had reached a glass ceiling in the UK and needed a change.



“I had become a father and had two kids to take care of so just looking at them and looking at where I was at the time, I knew there was more to me than what I was doing; I had to find my purpose. I didn’t want a hand-to-mouth lifestyle anymore and seeing my kids running around in the tiny



apartment we lived in at the time – I was married – and I just thought this can’t be it,” says Brommon.



He decided to forge a new path for his future and returned to Ghana.



The Ghana that he found torturous was gone and here was this buzzing, upwardly-mobile and cosmopolitan city Accra firmly asserting itself as the latest destination for those brave enough to follow their dreams.



That is exactly what Brommon needed.



“Accra was new to me because I had lived in a village. The place was buzzing with new ideas and people were starting new businesses. I met a friend who was into finance and every time I visited Ghana, I would see him and we would hang out. This was a well-to-do individual and he used to advise that whatever I do, I must make sure Ghana is part of the plan, and 



I could see it myself,” says Brommon.



The trips to Accra became more frequent and on those times, he received consistent orders from professionals in Ghana for quality suits and clothing from London, primarily because they couldn’t find top brands in Accra in keeping with their aspirations.



“They said that if they [could find] one supplier who had great quality [brands], they would buy it locally but it just didn’t exist,” recalls Brommon. That was all he needed to hear.



“I said ‘They want quality and easy access, so what if I am able to start my own brand.’ I was done with the UK. I told my wife that I needed to move back alone and have that freedom to move around and hustle and so, I asked her to take care of the kids whilst I managed. I felt I needed to follow this vision.” Even when people discouraged his ideas, Brommon believed differently. The desire to create a luxury bespoke suit line in Ghana had been birthed and there was no turning back.



His research took him to Italy, Amsterdam and Spain in search of the best manufacturers of suits and he struck deals with them. It felt good to start a journey on his own.



“I said if it doesn’t work, at least I would have tried. I remember the factory [I had approached] told me I needed about £20,000 and I didn’t have a penny. So, I said to [them], ‘Sign me up and agree to the terms



and give me six months and if I don’t pay that money back to you, we can cancel’, ” says Brommon.



His pitch worked and with the necessary tools that he needed and £50 to his name, he returned to Accra and started knocking on every door he could find to tell people about his bespoke suits.



His biggest hurdle was trying to convince professional,



well-heeled Ghanaians to fork out $1,200-$1,400-a-piece for an unknown designer. But Brommon was convinced all he needed was one client and the rest would be history.



“This was 2014 and everyone [asked] ‘Why should I buy from you when I can spend the same amount of money on a Gucci or Tom Ford suit?’ I was on the street pitching for business for three months before one person known to be a fashionable lawyer decided to give my brand a try,” says Brommon.



After four weeks, the suit was delivered from Italy and the feedback was a resounding success. One order turned to multiple requests and Brommon was able to repay his manufacturer in three months.



As he helped the President of Ghana try on his sleek, sharp suit, it was clear to Brommon that his vision was slowly taking shape. As a recognizable force in the luxury suit and menswear market in West Africa and as founder of Brommon and Laxiri with a flagship store in Accra, he now has his eyes set on the rest of the continent.

bespoke

The Right Fit: Designing Bespoke Suits For Ghana’s Affluent

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Adidas CEO Bjorn Gulden <a href="https://youtu.be/YdWtvbkSJlY?feature=shared&amp;t=876" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a> in a recent podcast interview that he doesn’t think rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, “meant what he said” about Jewish people last year, adding he doesn’t think Ye is “a bad person, it just came across that way.”



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h3>



When asked about what happened with Adidas and Ye on&nbsp;In Good Company, a podcast from Norges Bank Investment Management, Gulden recognized the artist made some statements that weren’t “that good,” leading Adidas to break the contract.



But Gulden, who was not yet&nbsp;<a href="https://www.adidas-group.com/en/media/news-archive/press-releases/2022/bjorn-gulden-become-ceo-adidas-ag/#:~:text=The%20Supervisory%20Board%20of%20adidas,and%20CEO%20of%20adidas%20AG." target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">leading</a>&nbsp;the company at the time of the controversy, also offered praise for Ye, saying he’s “one of the most creative people in the world, both in music and … street culture.”



Gulden called the Yeezy shoe line one of the “most successful collabs” in history; it cost Adidas $440 million in sales in the first quarter of this year alone to discontinue the Yeezy line,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.adidas-group.com/en/media/news-archive/press-releases/2023/adidas-reports-revenues-on-prior-year-level-in-the-first-quarter/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according</a>&nbsp;to the sportswear company.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



Last October, Ye spouted antisemitic comments, conspiracy theories and criticized Black Lives Matter in a number of interviews and public appearances, leading to broken business relationships, his&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2022/10/08/musk-welcomes-kanye-west-back-to-twitter-after-hes-blocked-by-instagram-over-apparent-antisemitic-post/?sh=7ee386ca50da">removal</a>&nbsp;from social media platforms and widespread criticism. At the start of the month, Ye had models at his fashion show in Paris wear “White Lives Matter” shirts, a term that’s associated with a neo-Nazi group. Just days later, he took to X—formerly known as Twitter—to claim he was going to go “death con 3 on Jewish people.” He said it wasn’t antisemitic for him to tweet that because “black people are actually Jew also,” and his account was&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/carlieporterfield/2022/10/09/twitter-deletes-kanye-west-post-about-jewish-people/?sh=f9375e1302f7">locked</a>. Ye also repeatedly made comments that the Anti-Defamation League said use “age-old anti-Semitic myths about Jewish greed and power and control of the entertainment industry.” Ye said he didn’t regret his remarks, but did apologize for the “death con 3” comment on&nbsp;Piers Morgan Uncensored. In November, NBC News&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/kanye-west-ye-settlement-anti-semitic-jewish-hitler-nazis-allegations-rcna54485" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>&nbsp;people who previously worked with Ye said he made several pro-Hitler and pro-Nazi remarks as far back as 2018. In addition to Adidas, Gap, Balenciaga, Vogue and JP Morgan Chase all&nbsp;<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kanye-west-companies-cutting-ties-adidas-gap-balenciaga-vogue-tweet-2022-10" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">broke ties</a>&nbsp;with the artist. The essential collapse of his business empire caused Ye to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisettevoytko/2023/04/05/heres-why-kanye-west-dropped-off-the-forbes-billionaires-list/?sh=369e75cd1866">lose his billionaire status</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-crucial-quote">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h2>



“When you work with third parties that could happen and it’s part of the game,” Gulden said on the podcast. “That can happen with an athlete, it can happen with an entertainer, so it’s part of the business.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-big-number">BIG NUMBER</h2>



$565 million. That’s how much Adidas made in May when it opted to sell the unsold Yeezy shoes that were left over after the company stopped working with Ye. The sale of Yeezy inventory helped Adidas reduce its projected operating loss for the year from $775 million to $598.56 million, the company&nbsp;<a href="https://www.adidas-group.com/media/filer_public/4d/5f/4d5fbc81-6eee-4e9e-b21d-1f9247d3aff6/adidasag_q22023_pre-announcement_final_en.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-forbes-valuation">FORBES VALUATION</h2>



We estimate Ye’s net <a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/kanye-west/?sh=4cef8adb56f1">worth at $400 million</a>—a fraction of his $2 billion estimated net worth last year.

adidas + KANYE WEST New Partnership Announcement

Adidas CEO: Kanye West Didn’t Mean Antisemitic Comments, Isn’t A Bad Person

Aisha Shehu is using fashion to shift the narrative of the Fulani people in Nigeria.



Aisha Shehu is on a mission to show the world the beauty of the Fulani culture as a modern Fulani woman.



The cultural detail and distinctive colors of the traditional outfits of the Fulani tribe always resonated with Shehu. Both her parents were civil servants so she credits her entrepreneurial spark to her creative and artistic side, which was a constant during her formative years.



However, her path to becoming the next emerging fashion trendsetter was an unconventional one.



The Fulani tribe is a nomadic tribe of herders who migrate with their cattle in search of land rich with grass and water. Where previously determined by the change in seasons, more recently,



climate change and desertification have led Fulani herdsmen to migrate to lands belonging to sedentary farmers, reportedly resulting in violent clashes between the two.



Despite this negative narrative of the Fulani in the media, Shehu, the founder of luxury clothing brand BABAYO, is looking to change that through the power of fashion. Born in Lagos to Fulani parents from Gombe in north-eastern Nigeria, Shehu grew up wearing traditional Fulani clothing during major public holidays such as Nigeria’s Independence Day. However, knowing her parents would not pay for her to attend fashion school, Shehu opted to go to business school in France instead. She also did a one-year degree in fashion while there. The plan was to start her own fashion business and put the skills she had acquired abroad to work.



“My mother told me to give her my CV so I could start looking for jobs. It took me long to create one not because it was hard to do, but because I did not want to return to the oil and gas sector and a nine-to-five job,” recalls Shehu.



Rather than look for employment, she came up with another plan. With the savings she accumulated teaching English to children in France, as well as money she made from her work experience in the oil and gas sector, Shehu decided to rent a space for her



business, buy her first sewing machine and hire a tailor.



For Shehu, ground zero involved coasting through the fashion business with no real strategy in mind



in terms of how to differentiate herself from the competition. She dabbled in casual, formal and bridal couture to make ends meet. The real turning point for the brand happened by default and not by design.



“Two years ago, when I was going through my closet with my sister, we found our old Fulani outfits that we wore as kids – the traditional ones. I remember saying how weird it was that we could not wear this all the time. And that is when the conversation started. From there, we wanted to find a way to make it modern, accessible and functional.” Before Shehu embarked on the new brand direction, she ran the idea by a few 



people. “They were like, am I sure this is the right time because of the backlash in the media?”



For Shehu, the answer was a resounding yes. The only way forward was to showcase the beauty of her culture.



And just like that, things began to take off. BABAYO began to form its own identity. The outfits became a hit and very soon, Shehu was designing variations of her latest creations, infused with other cultural elements.



The turning point came about through social media.



In 2021, she was contacted by Lagos Fashion Week, Nigeria’s top fashion event, on Instagram.



“I came home and got an invitation for the next emerging designers and people to look out for, and I was blown away because I didn’t know anyone.”



That invitation was for a digital show. The following year, Shehu got invited again but, this time, she was on the runway.



“I got called again! For a small and unknown brand like us to do a runway show was a big deal because you are walking alongside other established brands who have been around for years. I got to do that for Lagos Fashion Week; I took a bow on stage and that was a breakthrough moment for the brand.”



Since 2017, Shehu has increased her client base organically, with customers ordering her pieces from all over the world, including Qatar, Japan and Australia. She has also made it to the top 12 out of 400 designers to be accepted into the fashion accelerator program created by the African Development Bank. The long-term vision of BABAYO is to become a dominant brand in the luxury fashion sector. But the heart of it will always be the cultural heritage of the Fulani.

narrative

Sartorial Diplomacy: Shifting The Narrative, One Outfit At A Time In Nigeria

After a long and stressful but successful debut at Paris Fashion Week and becoming one of the few designers from Africa to do so, Aryea Kolubah is holidaying in Jamaica when she sits down for this Zoom interview with FORBES AFRICA.



Her eccentric and bold designs wowed the fashion stage in March, and you can tell that her “vibe” is inspired by her West African roots, which translates to bright ethnic prints and vibrant colors to create sartorial statements for the fearless and confident woman.



This is all done with very some specific messaging.



“I’m such a connoisseur of art but also I am such a connoisseur of the continent, and I take that show with me everywhere,” Kolubah says. “…Being from Africa, [there’s so much art that’s being stolen]… but yet still, we are fighting to find our place in the art and entertainment space. And I’m just so fortunate that I am at a pivotal time in my life where I can contribute to society’s demands.”



Although this was her debut on the Paris stage, this is not her first time taking the fashion industry by storm. Kolubah’s designs have already graced international platforms, including New York Fashion Week, Miami Swim week, San Francisco Fashion Week, Louisville Fashion Nite-Out, and Runway Liberia International.



Born in Liberia, but raised in the United States from 2005, Kolubah was influenced by her father, who instilled in her a thirst for knowledge, creative expression, a strong work ethic, and a determination to pursue her dreams.



“When I told my father that I wanted to be a designer, he was like ‘but you could be a doctor, you could be a lawyer, all of these things’. But when I told him I love art he got me my very first sewing machine.”



Unfortunately, Kolubah’s father was not able to see her first foray in global fashion as not long after she received her sewing machine, her father died in a tragic fire accident she says could have also taken her life. But she survived.



“My father passed away [because of] the fire in my apartment, [where we both were, but] by the grace of God, I’m here today… Fashion has to be in the therapeutic part of my life.



“The craft does come with ups and downs but I’ve always dreamed that this particular gift of mine would take me places,” Kolubah says. “Being African, and just being invited to that type of prestigious event like Paris to showcase my art…And just beyond that, the way in which the audience accepted it and everything else that has followed since… it’s a dream come true.”



She is grateful indeed.



“I represent a million Africans because there’s so much created from the continent and [people] who haven’t had the chance. But now that I do have the chance, if I were to give somebody advice, I would say just ‘go for it’!”

IMG_3210 (7)

From Liberia To The World: ‘A Connoisseur Of The Continent’

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Fast fashion retailer Shein shot down a Thursday report from&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/chinas-shein-files-us-ipo-sources-2023-06-29/?taid=649dc58f25570b0001e072d2&amp;utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&amp;utm_medium=trueAnthem&amp;utm_source=twitter" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Reuters</a>&nbsp;that claimed it confidentially registered with regulators for a U.S. initial public offering, in what would be a highly controversial listing in the U.S. given controversy around the brand’s labor practices.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



Shein told&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;in an email that it denied “rumors” around the Reuters story, which reported the company had filed for an IPO with the Securities and Exchange Commission.



The company, which has been surrounded by&nbsp;<a href="https://time.com/6247732/shein-climate-change-labor-fashion/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">controversy</a>&nbsp;over allegations of using forced labor, could have been the most valuable Chinese company to go public in the U.S., according to Reuters.



Shein was valued at $66 billion following a $2 billion funding round from this year—a valuation down more than 25% from a year earlier, according to the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/fashion-giant-shein-raises-2-billion-but-lowers-valuation-by-a-third-1f8c316b" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Wall Street Journal.</a>



Shein did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Forbes.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



Shein is known for its fast fashion platform that offers low prices on a wide variety of men’s and women&#8217;s clothing, making it a popular brand in the U.S. According to a Money.co.uk&nbsp;<a href="https://www.money.co.uk/credit-cards/most-popular-fashion-brands-2022" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">report</a>&nbsp;last year, Shein managed to overtake companies such as Zara, Nike and Adidas in the world’s most-Googled clothing brands. However, the company’s success comes at a highly-scrutinized cost involving high emissions and alleged forced labor that lawmakers have encouraged the SEC to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/05/01/shein-china-congress-forced-labor-inquiry.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">crack down on</a>. The company produced about&nbsp;<a href="https://www.businessoffashion.com/news/topics/shein-sustainability-emissions-global-warming-fast-fashion/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">6.3 million tons</a>&nbsp;of carbon dioxide in 2021 and has historically&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/05/01/shein-china-congress-forced-labor-inquiry.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">denied</a>&nbsp;forced labor allegations and maintained that it has worked to comply with customs and import laws. However, attempts to clear its record, such as a tour of a clothing factory given by the company to influences, have been&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/darreonnadavis/2023/06/27/sheins-influencer-trip-backlash-explained-and-what-we-know-about-allegations-against-them/?sh=49c52cf73508">met with skepticism.</a>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-big-number">BIG NUMBER</h2>



<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/shein-valued-at-100-billion-in-funding-round-11649126740" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$100 billion</a>. That was Shein’s reported valuation in a funding round last year before plummeting down to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/e84a6fcd-0881-47a1-b5dd-610ab72e7fdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">around $60 billion</a>&nbsp;this year.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/chinas-shein-files-us-ipo-sources-2023-06-29/?taid=649dc58f25570b0001e072d2&amp;utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&amp;utm_medium=trueAnthem&amp;utm_source=twitter" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Exclusive: China&#8217;s Shein files for U.S. IPO -sources</a>&nbsp;(Reuters)



<a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/06/29/shein-denies-report-that-its-filed-for-an-ipo" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Shein denies report that it&#8217;s filed for an IPO</a>&nbsp;(Axios)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/darreonnadavis/2023/06/27/sheins-influencer-trip-backlash-explained-and-what-we-know-about-allegations-against-them/?sh=49c52cf73508">Shein’s Influencer Trip Backlash Explained—And What We Know About Allegations Against Them</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://time.com/6247732/shein-climate-change-labor-fashion/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Shein Is the World’s Most Popular Fashion Brand—at a Huge Cost to Us All </a>(Time)

In this photo illustration, the fashion retailer Shein

Is Shein About To Hit Stock Market? Report Says Company Filed For IPO—But Chinese Firm Denies Plan

Despite the public roasting Levi’s took for flirting with AI, smaller clothing sellers who model their own products online maintain a growing interest in replacing themselves with the computer-generated kind.



On Tracy Porter’s&nbsp;clothing site, it’s all Tracy Porter.



Thin, blonde and 5-foot-10, the 55-year-old entrepreneur poses in each and every one of her designs. Her husband uses his iPhone to snap pictures, which they often take on the wildflower-strewn bluffs overlooking the beach 15 minutes from their home in California’s Santa Ynez Valley, before uploading them to their e-commerce site, The Porter Collective. There, you can see Porter in her striped midi dress, in her multicolor crocheted cardigan and in her black-and-white rattan visor.



Porter said she’s been searching for ways to replace herself as a model, not only to lighten the load but to bring some diversity to the site. Humans, however, are prohibitively expensive. So she’s been testing a new artificial-intelligence service from Israeli startup&nbsp;<a href="https://botika.io/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Botika</a>. She said the images look so realistic that when she showed her sons, they told her she was out of a job.



“I’m actually excited about that. I don’t want to be our model anymore,” Porter said with a laugh.



After Levi’s endured a scorching backlash in March for&nbsp;<a href="https://www.levistrauss.com/2023/03/22/lsco-partners-with-lalaland-ai/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">its plan</a>&nbsp;to bring more diversity to the site with AI-generated models – critics flayed the company, which had 2022 sales of $6.2 billion, for not simply hiring more humans – it would be no surprise if big clothing retailers have gotten skittish about using, or admitting they use, nonhuman models. That same public disapproval hasn’t yet extended to the many mom-and-pop clothing shops, whose budgets, like Tracy Porter’s, would collapse under the costs of professional hair, makeup and photography – even without inflation, rising borrowing costs and a recession that feels as if it’s been looming forever.



Services like Botika let brands easily display their clothing on various (computer-generated) fashion models. However, they are still working to add more ages, body shapes and ethnicities.BOTIKA



“In the current economy, customers are mostly looking to optimize costs,” said Eran Dagan, cofounder and CEO of Botika, which caters to small businesses and plans to start subscriptions for its AI model service at just $15 a month. It’s preparing to launch on Shopify and has a waiting list of over 1,000 customers. Dagan said Botika has gotten interest from sellers on resale platforms like Poshmark and Depop, where entrepreneurs typically photograph clothing on themselves and crop out their heads.



Another company in the space,&nbsp;<a href="https://lalaland.ai/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Lalaland</a>&nbsp;— which is still set to power Levi’s attempt to go AI — said its recent growth has been driven mainly by small and medium-sized businesses. While the company declined to disclose revenue figures, cofounder and CEO Michael Musandu said business has picked up significantly over the last eight months and sales have grown by eight- or nine-fold.



“We’re helping emerging brands that are just starting out and have zero budgets, or low budgets, to actually plan photoshoots,” said Musandu. “We really help level the playing field by representing the underdog.”



The fact remains that for everyone, photoshoots are pricey, and while shoppers are increasingly demanding that clothes be shown on a variety of models, no brand has an unlimited budget to do that. Tracy Porter used to hire outside photographers, models and hair and makeup stylists to shoot her products, but it would cost $5,500 every time she brought them out. If she outsourced photography for her multimillion-dollar business today, she estimates it would set her back $500,000 a year. “It’s just too much money,” she said.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
“What I’d like to do is take an image and see it on different sizes. Small, medium and large. But I don’t want to have to hire all the people to do that.”Tracy Porter, small business owner
</blockquote>



Which is how Porter landed on modeling the clothes herself. However, that makes it difficult for shoppers with a different body shape or ethnicity to get a sense for how her products would look on them. “What I’d like to do is take an image and see it on different sizes. Small, medium and large. But I don’t want to have to hire all the people to do that,” said Porter. “Because there will be no profit left in our company and we’ll have to close.”



Another small business owner, Jacob Flores, is looking forward to more easily finding models that reflect his customer base. The 50-year-old former web designer from San Antonio, whose online store Blissfully Brand sells skintight dresses, skater skirts and bell bottoms in colorful prints inspired by fashion from the 1960s and 1970s, has a lot of customers in their 40s and 50s. But many models for hire tend to be much younger.



Flores recently started using Lalaland, where he can hand-select digital models from a library, dress them in his products and upload the images to his site without leaving the house. For $300 a month, he gets 50 images, enabling him to display more of his clothing on models much faster. He was previously limited to doing photoshoots four times a year, where he would pay $900 to get as many shots of a few models in 20 outfits as he could in two hours.



Now he plans to do photoshoots just once or twice a year on location so he can show his clothing at the beach or on a city street. He also sees AI being helpful with social media ads, allowing him to target certain audiences with tailored images.



Richard Evans, founder of wellness startup Juro Miru, also opted to include some shots on AI models to launch his new e-commerce site, in addition to images of clothing laid on a flat surface.



Startup Juro Miru displays some of its products on AI models.SCREENSHOT OF JURO MIRU WEBSITE



As for shoppers, it can be impossible for them to tell whether they’re looking at a real or fake model. There are no clear rules for disclosure, although companies are beginning to think about it. TikTok is reportedly working on a tool that will give creators a way to say whether they’ve used generative AI.



“When you’re presenting an image that could easily be mistaken for an actual person, I think you should disclose that it’s a computer-generated image,” said David Danks, a professor at the University of California, San Diego whose research explores the ethical issues around artificial intelligence.



Porter is wrestling with this question, among others. “How would you even know? Do we have to say? Are we supposed to say? There are a lot of questions,” she said. Her friends seem afraid of AI and have told her they think it will put models out of work. “It’s a constant dinner table conversation for us.”



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurendebter/"></a>By Lauren Debter, Forbes Staff

Pacific Islander woman wearing artificial technology mask

Clothing Entrepreneurs Can’t Wait To Fire Themselves As Models And Hire The AI Kind Instead

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Sportswear brand Nike and luxury jewelry brand Tiffany &amp; Co. <a href="https://www.tiffany.com/stories/tiffany-and-nike-air-force/?omcid=sm-us_instagram-owned_nike&amp;utm_medium=social_media-us&amp;utm_source=instagram-owned&amp;utm_campaign=nike" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced</a> on Tuesday a collaboration on several products, including a pair of sneakers and silver shoe accessories which cost hundreds of dollars.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY FACTS</h2>



The core of the Nike x Tiffany collaboration is an all-black pair of Nike Air Force 1 Low sneakers, called the “1837s,” which feature the Nike’s signature swoosh logo done in Tiffany blue, and a sterling silver adornment.



The sneakers will <a href="https://www.gq.com/story/nike-tiffany-air-force-1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cost</a> $400, more than the roughly $100 typical Air Force 1s go for, and will likely go for more on the lucrative resale market.



On social media, Tiffany &amp; Co. also posted pictures of a Nike and Tiffany branded sterling silver shoe horn, a shoe brush—which many on social media have confused as a toothbrush—and shoelaces, as well as a silver referee whistle, which will range in&nbsp;<a href="https://hypebeast.com/2023/1/tiffany-co-nike-air-force-1-low-dz1382-001-release-date" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cost</a>&nbsp;from $250 to $475.



The line will be released on March 7.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">When they said “just do it,” we listened. Discover more: <a href="https://t.co/8FKzDD0r8Z">https://t.co/8FKzDD0r8Z</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NikexTiffany?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NikexTiffany</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TiffanyAndCo?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TiffanyAndCo</a> <a href="https://t.co/wTAzAFOJqe">pic.twitter.com/wTAzAFOJqe</a>&mdash; Tiffany &amp; Co. (@TiffanyAndCo) <a href="https://twitter.com/TiffanyAndCo/status/1620425500161359874?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 31, 2023</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">A legendary pair, indeed. Discover more: <a href="https://t.co/9luq0ydt1d">https://t.co/9luq0ydt1d</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NikexTiffany?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NikexTiffany</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TiffanyAndCo?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TiffanyAndCo</a> <a href="https://t.co/igqZmKrVnM">pic.twitter.com/igqZmKrVnM</a>&mdash; Tiffany &amp; Co. (@TiffanyAndCo) <a href="https://twitter.com/TiffanyAndCo/status/1620471039028240392?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 31, 2023</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



Tiffany &amp; Co. and Nike previously worked together in 2014 when the jewelry company’s signature aqua color was used in a Nike and Diamond Supply Co.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.stadiumgoods.com/en-us/shopping/sb-dunk-high-prm-diamond-supply-co-tiffany-13428964?clickref=1011lwwgEKmU&amp;utm_medium=affiliate&amp;utm_campaign=stadium_goods_us&amp;utm_source=skimlinks_phg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">pair of shoes</a>. This marks their first official collaboration. In the last few years, Tiffany has moved to attract a younger audience. In 2021, after being purchased by LVMH, it launched a campaign featuring the phrase “not your mother’s Tiffany,” and started featuring Beyoncé and Jay-Z as faces of the brand in the “About Love” campaigns. In one of their first ads, Beyoncé wore the famed Tiffany diamond, an 128-carat stone which had previously been worn only three times. In August, the brand&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/walterloeb/2022/08/02/tiffany-turns-nfts-into-wearable-jewelry/?sh=bd461146d14c">ventured</a>&nbsp;into NFTs, making wearable tokens out of digital assets.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">FORBES VALUATION</h2>



$214 billion. That’s how much&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;estimates Bernard Arnault, the chairman and CEO of LVMH, and his family to be worth. He is the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/real-time-billionaires/#1d4751363d78">richest person in the world</a>, as of Tuesday.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.gq.com/story/nike-tiffany-air-force-1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nike and Tiffany &amp; Co. Made Sneaker Dynamite</a>&nbsp;(GQ)



<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nike-and-tiffany-and-co-collab-not-impressing-sneakerheads-2023-1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nike is teaming up with Tiffany &amp; Co. on a $400 shoe. Sneakerheads aren&#8217;t impressed.</a> (Insider)



By Marisa Dellatto, Forbes Staff

Shoppers In Manhattan On Black Friday

Nike And Tiffany & Co Will Launch Luxury Air Force 1s And An Array Of Sterling Silver Shoe Accessories With Hefty Price Tag

Ghana is fast fashion’s dumping ground, and unwanted apparel is throwing up on the beaches leading to an environmental crisis.



At Oxford Circus in the heart of London, Rebecca Mossop, a store manager for George at ASDA, is getting ready to deliver October’s haul of clothing – that didn’t quite meet the exacting standards of the British consumer – to a delivery truck parked behind the store.



“The clothes are manufactured in China and sometimes some items fail quality control and that is where the store’s management decided on the idea of donating items of clothing they didn’t need to some of the poorest nations in Africa,” says Mossop.



The truck will make various stops on London’s high street retail stores before returning to its base in Lewisham, an area of southeast London. There, Michael Ofori, the Managing Director of A To Z Shippers, will ensure that the thousands of used and unused clothing piles are assembled and shipped to Tema, the largest port in Ghana, where his local team will transport it to the markets.



“We are providing a service to thousands of [informal female entrepreneurs] all over Ghana who rely on these items for their livelihoods,” says Ofori.



“But things have changed quite a bit from when we started this about 20 years ago. Back then, there was no fast fashion so the items that we had were of quality. Today, we have so many fast fashion brands and not to mention those individuals who can just set up their own stores online. The market is flooded and unfortunately it’s affecting the quality of stuff we send [off],” says Ofori.



Once loaded, the clothes get on shipping containers and are sent to the ports from where, after a month at sea, they reach the shores of Ghana.



According to the Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC), in 2020, the top exporters of Used Clothing (worn clothing and articles) were the US, China, UK, Germany and South Korea, while the top importer of Used Clothing was Ghana. With a population of over 31 million, Ghana took in over $180 million of Used Clothing, with Ukraine, Pakistan and Nigeria following suit.



Shippers like Ofori’s initially were seen as providing a vital lifeline for women in Ghana’s informal markets – until the advent of fast fashion. Today, the reality is different.



A fairly new concept, fast fashion has been popularized by high-street brands selling in-vogue trends at record speeds for affordable prices. These items are made cheaply in bulk due to their ready-to-wear, prêt-à-porter nature to cater to the frequent purchasing habits of middle-class consumers with disposable incomes.



The impact of fast fashion on the environment is dire. According to statistics published by the United Nations Environment Programme and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the fashion industry is the second-most-polluting industry after the oil industry.



Where fast fashion is creating a tidy profit for Western manufacturers, in Africa, it is stifling the garments sector.



“We have seen most ladies buy the same items multiple times simply because once they wash the items, most of them lose their quality. This is no longer an issue as some of these items only cost about $5 and so the idea is once it’s worn out, a consumer will discard it and buy more items,” says Mossop.



In Ghana, Sarah Bonsu, a trader in the country’s largest market at Kantamanto, is a regular customer of A To Z Shippers from where she frequently sources various items to sell in the market.



Kantamanto is home to over 30,000 traders with millions of items bought and sold each week. Bonsu has been making a living here for the past 10 years. She usually spends an equivalent of $150 on goods she cannot inspect until they are delivered at her stall in the market.



“There is no point inspecting these clothes. It is literally by luck. If you get quality in one batch, the next batch could be completely rubbish. That is just the way things work,” says Bonsu.



Once at her shop, Bonsu laboriously sifts through the new items and picks what she calls “the first selection”.



“First selection is for the fresh clothes that go quickly. Usually these are not worn yet or do not have any stains etc. The second selection comprises the ones that we know customers will not want and will be difficult to sell,” says Bonsu.



Heaps of unwanted clothing have now resulted in an environmental crisis in Ghana. In 2019, over 65 million tons of used clothing was sent to Ghana and of that figure, about 40% was not sold and was discarded, as per a report by the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change.



These items notoriously end up in landfills or worse – in the sea.



“Most people abroad go to bed thinking they have done something good for Africans by discarding their unwanted clothing but the truth is it is actually harming our economy. Local manufacturers cannot compete with the cheap prices and most of the clothing sent is not wanted by Africans. They end up as waste in landfills like this all over the country,” says Ernest Ijawan, a manager of the Kpone landfill in Ghana.



The negative effects are being felt in other sectors of the economy as well.



In Labadi beach, Accra, Kofi Sarpong and his team of fishermen have set sail in the hopes of netting enough fish to sell at the local market in Osu, a large township in the heart of Accra. Along the shores of the beach are groups of young boys and some of the female hawkers waiting for a signal from Sarpong and his men, who have carefully laid fishing nets from the shoreline to the open sea.



On their signal, all 20 hands on the beach begin the tedious ordeal of pulling on the fishing nets that take almost two hours to finally haul on to the beach. For their hard work, they are rewarded with one huge barracuda and entwined in the nets, heaps of clothing that have been discarded in the sea.



“This has been the trend for us for the past couple of years. We lose our nets because they get tangled up with clothing from the local markets and we don’t even get the fish that we used to. We cannot survive on just one fish,” rues Sarpong.



The Or Foundation, a human rights and environmental NGO from the United States, estimates that it takes about 200 years to decompose textile waste. When such waste makes its way to the sea, they invariably destroy marine life as well as the livelihoods of people like Sarpong.



“This means that when these clothes are not burned, they can be found everywhere because there are simply not enough landfills to deal with the waste. They go on the beach and form what we call



clothing tentacles and these trap fish and stop their growth. Fishermen all over Accra are struggling to make ends meet,” says Samuel Oteng, a volunteer at Or Foundation.



Ghana’s second-hand clothing market is second only to Pakistan with a global market share of 5.1% according to the Tony Blair Institute of Global Change. The country is in a Catch 22 situation when it comes to this issue. On the one hand, there is little it can do by way of a complete ban due to the number of consumers on the lower end of the socio-economic spectrum who rely on these textiles for their livelihood. On the other hand, the inflow of textiles is exacerbating an already difficult environmental crisis ultimately killing local economies like manufacturing and fishing.



There are those who believe that maybe a partial ban might go a long way in curtailing this crisis. Others opine that this presents a great opportunity for the recycling sector in Ghana. But whichever way the country decides to go, the one thing everyone agrees on is that, something needs be done sooner than later to limit the damage of the growing textile dump in a deteriorating economic climate.

Garments factory waste dumping sites

Rags, Not Riches: Why Ghana Is Fast Fashion’s Dumping Ground

Screenshot 2022-12-13 at 16.06.53

The Aesthetics of Excess: Luxury Fashion Guide And Maximalism Trends In South Africa

&#8220;I founded this company when I was sick,” Carla Frankel says with a shaky voice, when we meet in Botswana in April for the Forbes Under 30 Summit Africa. When she says that, the people around her listen, as she unravels to FORBES AFRICA the story of how she created the Top Drawer Collection, retailing personalized luxury sleepwear, in South Africa.



“In life-altering moments, I stood at the crossroads and pushed boundaries and used negative experiences to create really great products and experiences, rather than choosing the road of defeat and victimization.”



At the age of 21, Frankel was walking around campus and suddenly felt her feet burn, which actually turned out to be Sagittal Sinus Thrombosis.



“In other words, I had a stroke!” she recounts. Two years before that, Frankel had already been diagnosed with two autoimmune diseases; antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) as well as Lupus. During her second year at university, she had another stroke during a four-hour exam. This resulted in three weeks of hospitalization and Frankel being unable to finish her exams.



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It was during the recovery phase that she realized that the only thing in that “dark period” that lifted her spirits was the pair of matching pajamas her mom had bought for her from retail chain Woolworths.



“We would make quite a moment of them, put on face masks, and watch our favorite movies. Those pajamas with my mom weren’t just pajamas — they were a layer of comfort and safety. They were an armor of sorts to me that helped me feel beautiful and safe even while so disconnected from myself, in this foreign body that didn’t feel like mine.”



Coming into this moment feels almost full circle for Frankel as she admits that she started reading FORBES AFRICA 30 Under 30 lists five years ago and had always been inspired by the stories of the founders in them.



“I noticed that a large commonality in each person was overcoming challenges to create solutions and innovate. Most of all, I found inspiration in how most of these people made the choice to voyage forward into the path of success despite circumstances being against them.



“A near-death experience is the reason Top Drawer Collection exists, and with every negative health experience I face, a new, even better product is born to meet the need that I would only know how to fulfill by walking through the thorns and making it to the other side.”



Within six months of starting Top Drawer, Frankel says she received orders from South African celebrities such as actor-producer Connie Ferguson and influencer Kefilwe Mabote. Corporates like Unilever were also ordering sleepwear from her. Even when Covid-19 hit, she still managed her business.



“We have reached the market cap for the units that can be produced locally. I sell what I have, and there is a waiting list unbelievably long for those who didn’t manage to secure a set on a restock day. I am very grateful for the desire for the product.&#8221; Frankel says.



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Words and Curation: Chanel Retief Art Director: Lucy Nkosi Additional Research &amp; Reporting: Lillian Roberts Photography: Ilan Godfrey for Forbes Videography and production: Timothy Pierson for Forbes &amp; Chad McClymonds for Forbes Video Editor: Chanel Retief Styling: Katlego Magano of Oak Ave; Assistant: Tumelo Nkwe Hair &amp; Makeup: SnehhOnline Beauty; Thapelo Letsebe Location: Image Lounge, Botswana and 2022 Forbes Under 30 Summit



<a href="https://shop.forbesafrica.com/product/single-digital-issue-june-july-2022/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Get your digital copy here</a>



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#FORBESAFRICA30UNDER30: Meet Cover Star CARLA FRANKEL: ‘With Every Negative Health Experience…A New, Even Better Product is Born’

BY ALASTAIR HAGGER



AFRICA FASHION MEANS THE past, the future and the present at the same time” is the apposite sentiment by Moroccan designer Artsi, fronting the publicity for a major new exhibition launching in July this year at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum (V&amp;A). As the world finally begins to embrace the idea of Africa as a thrilling and vibrant continent of powerful, individualized creativity, rather than as a collection of recycled assumptions and stereotypes, the stage feels perfectly set for an exhibition that celebrates an entire constellation of African fashion ideas, in all its joyful diversity.



“Now feels like the right time, because as far as we’re concerned, we can see that African fashion creators are absolutely shifting the geography,” says Dr Christine Checinska, the museum’s Curator of African and African Diaspora Fashion.



“It’s one of those moments where everything aligns. We want to give a platform for these creatives to speak about their work in their way: it is this idea of many, multiple voices.”



The Africa Fashion exhibition, which will run through to April 2023, will trace an effervescent path from “iconic mid-20th century to contemporary creatives through photographs, textiles, music and the visual arts”. In ten sections – African Cultural Renaissance, The Politics and Poetics of Cloth, Vanguard, Capturing Change, Minimalism, Mixology, Artisanal, Afrotopia, Sartorialists and Adornment, the show will be more than just a feast for the eyes; it will be a living, breathing conversation about eight decades of cultural dynamism.



“The theorist Stuart Hall said that African diasporic cultural expression often evolves around music, movement and the body, where style becomes the thing that’s really going on,” says Checinska. “The body is a canvas for expressing identity, for expressing one’s culture. And this is often the way in which we enter into the African fashion scene – through photography, or film, or digital platforms, and the body is central to those kinds of arenas. It’s about ‘movement culture’, where it&#8217;s not just the garment; it&#8217;s the gesture, it&#8217;s the walk, it&#8217;s the performed identity through fashion. One of the reasons the exhibition jumps off from the mid-20th century is that, yes, it&#8217;s that galvanization of creativity that is centuries old, and it&#8217;s that moment of agency. It still has political relevance, I think, and artistic relevance, and I feel that contemporary designers are almost taking it back and reclaiming it.”



The show will cover a broad portfolio of topics with both Africa-specific and global relevance; from LGBTQ+ issues, to sustainability, to women’s empowerment, to cultural appropriation.



“We&#8217;ve always felt that this exhibition needed to give a glimpse of the glamour and politics of the African fashion scene, and so you&#8217;ll be able to read, hear and see the creatives voice themselves,” says Checinska. “We felt it was important to tell a story of agency, abundance and unbounded creativity, but tell it from the creators’ point of view.” This shift in perspective can also be seen as the beginning of a fresh era for the museum; the V&amp;A has just recruited new curators within the Africa focus. “We see it as the start of a deeper and sustained engagement with African creative 



excellence,” she says. “And what we learned through the conversations we&#8217;ve had with the creatives on the continent will absolutely shape the work I do in coordinating with the three new curators in rippling the African fashion events throughout the museum. This change is non-negotiable. We’re in it for the long term.”



One of the creatives whose work is featured in the exhibition is Nigerian designer Adebayo Oke-Lawal, founder of Orange Culture, a brand very much aligned with the exhibition’s appreciation for the differentiated voice. “I really wanted my brand to be about representation,” he says. “Orange for me felt like more than a color; it’s the idea of this secret, this thing that is misunderstood. It personifies the idea of individuality. Orange Culture is basically a culture of safe spaces.”



Oke-Lawal is proud of the brand’s 11-year growth, and the statement it makes about Nigerian entrepreneurship and resiliency. “From a third world country with an industry that is so young, that doesn&#8217;t even have the support of our government, we&#8217;re still able to create something beautiful from nothing,” he says. “And so it&#8217;s allowed us to celebrate our culture and our backgrounds, and the beauty of our individuals. Your brand is who you are. It should be the things you feel passionate about. Anyone who is building something needs to contribute to change; everybody should contribute to where they&#8217;ve come from.”



His brand “covers universal silhouettes with an African touch”, and “answers to just about anyone who&#8217;s interested in telling a story with the way they present themselves.” These stories often address preconceptions about masculine identity, and the role of fashion in gender identity, sexuality and individuality. “We’ve always been a brand that has challenged or opposed this idea of toxic masculinity,” says Oke-Lawal. “It’s about telling African men that they can be different, that they can have different expressions of themselves. It’s about expressing the richness of my culture through non-shaming.”



This defiance has a broader objective: an articulation of the desire for a re-calibration of external attitudes towards African fashion, which have tended to demand a specific visual narrative rather than demonstrating an openness to idiosyncrasy and innovation.



“It’s basically just teaching people our own stories, rather than allowing them to tell us what those stories are,” he says. “And I think we’ve allowed that for too long. I don’t go to China and say, ‘Why don’t you put chopsticks in your designs?’ You know? I think that that&#8217;s one of my favorite things about this exhibition – it’s really just allowing us to finally say, ‘Hey, this is who we are. This is finally ours, and this is what we&#8217;re telling you. So now you need to listen’.”

‘Chasing Evil’ collection, IAMISIGO, Kenya, AutumnWinter 2020. Photo Maganga Mwagogo

A Perspective on The Art Of Agency: London’s Victoria and Albert Museum celebrates eight decades of African fashion

Entrepreneur Nisha Kanabar is elevating the vernacular African fashion space employing content and engagement.



BY INAARA GANGJI



AFRICAN FASHION IS MORE THAN JUST patterns and traditional garb, and contrary to popular opinion, is modern and evolving. This is how fashion entrepreneur Nisha Kanabar,



a fourth generation Tanzanian and graduate of the Parsons School of Design in New York, sees it and is bent on changing the prevailing narrative from her base in Dar es Salaam.



When she started her career, this view of African fashion, or any, was almost non-existent, or if anything, painted with broad brushstrokes. There was almost a need to deconstruct Eurocentric standards, engage with cultures outside of homogenous cliches and curate to fit locations and audiences.



Throughout her tenure working in the fashion industry abroad including for reputed fashion magazines in the United States, India and the Middle East, she noticed how storytelling could connect audiences to creatives.



This was the genesis of Industrie Africa, her global retail destination for contemporary and luxury African fashion born in 2018, drawing on her upbringing in Tanzania and her views on diversity, identity and culture, which she deems inherently pluralistic.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignleft size-full is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Screenshot-2022-03-18-at-07.56.01.png" alt="" class="wp-image-54598" width="373" height="522" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Screenshot-2022-03-18-at-07.56.01.png 556w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Screenshot-2022-03-18-at-07.56.01-214x300.png 214w" sizes="(max-width: 373px) 100vw, 373px" /></figure></div>



“What hopping around different markets taught me was the potential that the media has in transforming perceptions,” says Kanabar, who has worked both in fashion editorial and commercial fashion.



Her first experience in an emerging market, while at Vogue India, opened her eyes to the value of detail and context as the powerful voice of creatives and designers.



She says Industrie Africa thus showcases luxury pan-African brands through the principles of storytelling, thought, leadership and education, working with its designer community to deliver straight from their studios to anywhere in the world.



“When I moved back home [to Tanzania] in 2016, I realized the gaps in the [fashion] industry. There was a lack of accuracy and in how it was portrayed globally, but there was also a regional disconnect,” she stresses.



“There’s a lack of diversity in general [internationally]. So [this was] as an answer to this fractured, underrepresented fashion industry to really offer 



the media and fashion stakeholders clear, cohesive access to the market in a way they haven’t had access to before.”



Starting Industrie Africa also meant understanding who the audience for luxury pan-African fashion was and what they desired in terms of sectorial knowledge.



Kanabar also noted a lack of access and infrastructure. How could she create a retail platform without even the basic fundamentals in place?



“From the initial launch, we began to cultivate this really engaged community and then just started digging deeper and realized that there was an overwhelming demand for consumer products when it came to Africa, and African luxury in particular, and also African-led content.”



This led to the launch of Industrie Africa’s e-commerce platform in 2020, challenging the constructs of what people perceive stereotypical African fashion to be and to highlight pan-African voices through an intuitive global editorial framework and lens.



“It’s kind of to raise the bar in storytelling when it comes to our continent, because I don’t feel like we have the right voices from within to gather and supercharge and create content in an elevated way, so that that was kind of part of the mission,” she says.



“The way we work with our designers is that we curate in a way that elevates them and elevates our product narrative and elevates everything to an international standard.”



There is also the emphasis on sustainability.



The high-end fashion industry in Africa has few content platforms and less knowledge-sharing around it.



Kanabar believes that you cannot push retail without storytelling and that engagement cannot be nurtured without it.



“[Industrie Africa] is uniquely tailored to the ecosystem that we belong to, so it’s not a copy-paste model by any means, it’s very much integrated like a puzzle piece within our environment&#8230;. what we do is we’re able to contextualize the African fashion experience in a very authentic way which hasn’t been seen before. It’s this immersive experience that allows you to engage with the industry on your own terms and whatever that means to you.”



But the challenge remains to function in an industry with little infrastructure and high-risk. The digital and regulatory infrastructure is not advanced enough and working with a fully remote team is even more difficult. Getting the goods to customers through international shipping is also tricky.



“[Things are] so unpredictable being an African e-commerce business and another thing is probably that there’s not a lot of data. Our target markets are undefined and under-researched in so many ways, it’s less clear exactly who your customer is. That’s such a new space for us that we are kind of trying things or throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks,” she rues.



Yet she is hopeful and believes digitization will increasingly become the norm, leading to increased collaboration and independence. She also advocates local content.



“There’s so much more to be connected with. There’s so much more pride in what we have around us.”



Kanabar is also keen on promoting knowledge.



“I think fashion education is something that is going to be really major that we can anticipate seeing in the next few years. It’s where you’re avoiding the copy-paste model, where you’re moving away from the fashion curriculum being westernized; and designers are becoming mentors,” adds Kanabar, who is also on the board of the Council for International African Fashion Education.



“We are just working on increased access to resources for the next generation of creative talent and the next generation of fashion professionals.”

Screenshot 2022-03-21 at 12.11.27

The Tanzanian Storyteller in Fashion

<h2 class="has-text-align-center wp-block-heading" id="h-ending-the-year-with-grape-expectations">Ending The Year With Grape Expectations</h2>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignleft size-full is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screenshot-2021-12-14-at-15.50.57.png" alt="" class="wp-image-53718" width="236" height="322" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screenshot-2021-12-14-at-15.50.57.png 422w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screenshot-2021-12-14-at-15.50.57-220x300.png 220w" sizes="(max-width: 236px) 100vw, 236px" /></figure></div>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright size-full is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screenshot-2021-12-14-at-15.51.04.png" alt="" class="wp-image-53717" width="236" height="339" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screenshot-2021-12-14-at-15.51.04.png 446w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screenshot-2021-12-14-at-15.51.04-209x300.png 209w" sizes="(max-width: 236px) 100vw, 236px" /></figure></div>



NEVER HAVE WE NEEDED MORE OF A reason to celebrate. As yet another pandemic year draws to a close, and fêtes get underway and family gatherings become more possible after a prolonged period of lockdowns and quarantine,if you are keen to suitably see the year out in style, and toast life, best to do it with some champagne. 



At parties made up of immediate family and your nearest and dearest, or at a more extravagant soirée to mark the occasion and look back on the year, or even a corporate event honoring the close of a big year- end deal, champagne is both the ultimate festive accessory and the ideal way to lift your spirit. These Moët &amp; Chandon bottles are wrapped in beautiful festive gift boxes.



THE CLASSIC FESTIVE ACCESSORY Trio of Moët Impérial, Impérial Nectar, Impérial Rosé



The annual effervescent gift bottles and boxes by Moët &amp; Chandon look fun, festive and iconic. Moët &amp; Chandon Impérial is also the house’s signature champagne, created in 1869 to embody a seductive palate and elegant maturity. It’s a stylish timeless classic, made continuously modern with its annual limited-edition incarnations. This season Moët &amp; Chandon offers a fresh, uplifting take on festive gifting, to celebrate togetherness &#8211; be it with your family, friends or business partners.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screenshot-2021-12-14-at-15.51.08.png" alt="" class="wp-image-53716" width="238" height="365" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screenshot-2021-12-14-at-15.51.08.png 364w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screenshot-2021-12-14-at-15.51.08-196x300.png 196w" sizes="(max-width: 238px) 100vw, 238px" /></figure></div>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="910" height="1024" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screenshot-2021-12-14-at-15.50.50-910x1024.png" alt="" class="wp-image-53719" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screenshot-2021-12-14-at-15.50.50-910x1024.png 910w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screenshot-2021-12-14-at-15.50.50-267x300.png 267w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screenshot-2021-12-14-at-15.50.50-768x864.png 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screenshot-2021-12-14-at-15.50.50.png 1168w" sizes="(max-width: 910px) 100vw, 910px" /></figure></div>

People Enjoy Christmas Season In Tokyo Amid Plumetting Covid Cases And An Absence Of Omicron

A Forbes Africa Fashion Festive Gift Guide

Jeunes créateurs, a concept that came about in Paris in the 1970s, seems to be upon us again, with the emergence of an almost youthful, colorful and even playful flair in the way designers seem to be creating now. The shift arrives just in time for the festive season as luxe-lovers emerge out of prolonged lockdown and quarantine modes. A handful of African designers are catering to this newfound freedom with elaborate, cutting-edge collections set to stir a fashion frenzy.



STYLIST AND COMPILED BY KEABETSWE MAFORA <meta charset="utf-8">ART DIRECTION: LUCY NKOSI PHOTOGRAPHY: KATLEGO MOKUBYANE; NEWKATZ STUDIO MAKE-UP: VANESSA UNAMACA; MAKOLEMADE BEAUTY LOCATION: THE HOUGHTON HOTEL – ROCKSTAR PENTHOUSE



<div class="wp-block-media-text alignwide is-stacked-on-mobile"><figure class="wp-block-media-text__media"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="683" height="1024" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ForbesSA1689-683x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-53545 size-full" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ForbesSA1689-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ForbesSA1689-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ForbesSA1689-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ForbesSA1689-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ForbesSA1689-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ForbesSA1689-scaled.jpg 1707w" sizes="(max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px" /></figure><div class="wp-block-media-text__content">
<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-melody-molale-digital-creator-and-luxury-lifestyle-enthusiast-south-africa">MELODY MOLALE &#8211; Digital creator and luxury lifestyle enthusiast, South Africa</h2>



Port of LNG Emerald jewel dress – ZAR33,000 / $2,161; Thomas Sabo Orange Stone Drop Earrings with Star –ZAR4,950 / $324; Thomas Sabo Large Stone cocktail ring – ZAR3,725 / $244; Rose gold watch: Bulova Ladies Diamond (Bella Luna) &#8211; ZAR5,840 / $382
</div></div>



<div class="wp-block-media-text alignwide has-media-on-the-right is-stacked-on-mobile"><figure class="wp-block-media-text__media"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="683" height="1024" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ForbesSA0969-683x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-53541 size-full" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ForbesSA0969-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ForbesSA0969-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ForbesSA0969-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ForbesSA0969-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ForbesSA0969-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ForbesSA0969-scaled.jpg 1707w" sizes="(max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px" /></figure><div class="wp-block-media-text__content">
<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-fezile-makhanya-actor-presenter-south-africa">FEZILE MAKHANYA &#8211; Actor/Presenter, South Africa</h2>



Port of LNG Citrine Unorthodox Suit – ZAR30,000 / $1,963; Thomas Sabo Marble Obsidian Bead Bracelet – ZAR3,225 / $211; Thomas Sabo Two-Tone Beaded Bracelet– ZAR3,725 / $242; Brown Watch: GUESS Collection Gents Chronograph (Bella Luna) – ZAR8,999 / $589
</div></div>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="563" height="1024" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screenshot-2021-12-07-at-15.37.29-563x1024.png" alt="" class="wp-image-53554" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screenshot-2021-12-07-at-15.37.29-563x1024.png 563w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screenshot-2021-12-07-at-15.37.29-165x300.png 165w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screenshot-2021-12-07-at-15.37.29.png 734w" sizes="(max-width: 563px) 100vw, 563px" /></figure></div>







<figure class="wp-block-gallery columns-2 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex"><ul class="blocks-gallery-grid"><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><figure><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="683" height="1024" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ForbesSA1801-683x1024.jpg" alt="" data-id="53547" data-full-url="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ForbesSA1801-scaled.jpg" data-link="https://www.forbesafrica.com/?attachment_id=53547" class="wp-image-53547" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ForbesSA1801-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ForbesSA1801-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ForbesSA1801-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ForbesSA1801-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ForbesSA1801-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ForbesSA1801-scaled.jpg 1707w" sizes="(max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px" /></figure></li><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><figure><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="683" height="1024" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ForbesSA1729-683x1024.jpg" alt="" data-id="53546" data-full-url="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ForbesSA1729-scaled.jpg" data-link="https://www.forbesafrica.com/?attachment_id=53546" class="wp-image-53546" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ForbesSA1729-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ForbesSA1729-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ForbesSA1729-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ForbesSA1729-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ForbesSA1729-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ForbesSA1729-scaled.jpg 1707w" sizes="(max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px" /></figure></li></ul><figcaption class="blocks-gallery-caption"> </figcaption></figure>



Thebe Magugu Belted Contrast- Stitch Cotton Wraparound Jacket – ZAR19,700 / $1290; Thebe Magugu Contrast-Stitch Cotton Wide-Leg Trousers – ZAR8,437 / $552; Thomas Sabo Multicolored Wing Earrings – ZAR6,475 / $424; Thomas Sabo Multicolour Parrot Pendant – ZAR12,450 / $816; Plain Necklace – ZAR1,225 / $80; Europa Art (Schutz) – ZAR1,990 / $130



<figure class="wp-block-gallery columns-2 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-2 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex"><ul class="blocks-gallery-grid"><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><figure><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="683" height="1024" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ForbesSA2066-683x1024.jpg" alt="" data-id="53550" data-full-url="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ForbesSA2066-scaled.jpg" data-link="https://www.forbesafrica.com/?attachment_id=53550" class="wp-image-53550" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ForbesSA2066-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ForbesSA2066-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ForbesSA2066-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ForbesSA2066-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ForbesSA2066-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ForbesSA2066-scaled.jpg 1707w" sizes="(max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px" /></figure></li><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><figure><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="672" height="1024" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screenshot-2021-12-07-at-15.38.03-672x1024.png" alt="" data-id="53552" data-full-url="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screenshot-2021-12-07-at-15.38.03.png" data-link="https://www.forbesafrica.com/?attachment_id=53552" class="wp-image-53552" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screenshot-2021-12-07-at-15.38.03-672x1024.png 672w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screenshot-2021-12-07-at-15.38.03-197x300.png 197w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screenshot-2021-12-07-at-15.38.03-768x1170.png 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screenshot-2021-12-07-at-15.38.03.png 878w" sizes="(max-width: 672px) 100vw, 672px" /></figure></li></ul></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="952" height="1024" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screenshot-2021-12-07-at-15.37.53-952x1024.png" alt="" class="wp-image-53553" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screenshot-2021-12-07-at-15.37.53-952x1024.png 952w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screenshot-2021-12-07-at-15.37.53-279x300.png 279w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screenshot-2021-12-07-at-15.37.53-768x826.png 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screenshot-2021-12-07-at-15.37.53.png 1270w" sizes="(max-width: 952px) 100vw, 952px" /></figure>



<div class="wp-block-media-text alignwide is-stacked-on-mobile" style="grid-template-columns:43% auto"><figure class="wp-block-media-text__media"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="683" height="1024" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ForbesSA1466-683x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-53556 size-full" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ForbesSA1466-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ForbesSA1466-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ForbesSA1466-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ForbesSA1466-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ForbesSA1466-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ForbesSA1466-scaled.jpg 1707w" sizes="(max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px" /></figure><div class="wp-block-media-text__content">
Port of LNG Emerald Double Breast Suit – ZAR28,000 / $1,834; Port of LNG Black Pleated Belt – ZAR10,000 / $655; Port of LNG White Shirt – ZAR3,000 / $196; Port of LNG Bow Tie – ZAR500 / $33; Europa Art Karl Desert-Green – ZAR3,290 / $215
</div></div>

Screenshot 2021-12-07 at 15.47.39

PAST FORWARD: African Luxury Redefined / A FORBES AFRICA Fashion Shoot

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Virgil Abloh, a pioneering Black&nbsp; designer for Louis Vuitton and his own streetwear brand Off-White, unexpectedly died Sunday,&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/LVMH/status/1465022773550583823?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">LVMH announced</a>.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



Abloh, who was 41, died after a two-year battle with “a rare, aggressive form of cancer” called cardiac angiosarcoma, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CW1FDd4oXan/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a statement</a>&nbsp;posted on his Instagram, a health issue that was unknown to the public until his death.&nbsp;



Abloh “chose to endure his battle privately” and underwent “numerous challenging treatments, all while helming several significant institutions that span fashion, art, and culture,” the statement read.&nbsp;



Abloh was “not only a genius designer, a visionary, he was also a man with a beautiful soul and great wisdom, ” LVMH chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault said in a release.&nbsp;



Davide de Giglio and Andrea Grilli, of Off-White’s parent company,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CW1IeUIsnqe/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>&nbsp;“there are no words to describe the loss that his passing leaves in our lives.”&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-crucial-quote">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h2>



“Through it all, his work ethic, infinite curiosity, and optimism never wavered. Virgil was driven by his dedication to his craft and to his mission to open doors for others and create pathways for greater equality in art and design,” the Instagram statement read.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



Abloh was the first African-American designer for Louis Vuitton, a nearly 200-year-old French fashion house. He joined the brand in 2018 after the success of his streetwear company Off-White, a Milan-based brand he started in 2012. Off-White is known for its self-aware fashions, with many of its styles featuring product descriptions on them in quotes. Off-White has famously collaborated with Nike and Ikea, and Abloh designed model Hailey Bieber’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.harpersbazaar.com/celebrity/latest/a29522993/hailey-bieber-off-white-wedding-dress-details/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">wedding gown</a>&nbsp;through the label. Abloh was born in Chicago to immigrant parents from Ghana, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.vogue.com/article/virgil-abloh-biography-career-timeline" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Vogue</a>. He was close to Chicago native, rapper and fashion designer Kanye West— the two interned together at Fendi. Abloh later designed the cover and served as artistic director for West’s album “Watch The Throne,” and also influenced the covers of “Yeezus” and “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.” A multi-hyphenate artist, Abloh also performed music and made paintings and sculptures. A collection of his artwork, Figures Of Speech, is touring at museums around the country. He married Shannon Sundberg in 2009 and was the father of two children, Grey and Lowe.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/korihale/2021/08/05/louis-vuitton-goes-off-white-with-60-stake-in-virgil-ablohs-brand/?sh=72a2094333d5">Louis Vuitton Goes Off-White With 60% Stake In Virgil Abloh&#8217;s Brand</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)&nbsp;



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/tanyaklich/2021/04/11/kid-cudi-viral-snl-floral-dress-designed-by-virgil-abloh-honors-kurt-cobain/?sh=1bd5b0121161">The Meaning Behind Kid Cudi’s SNL Dress Designed By Virgil Abloh—And How To Emulate The Viral Look</a> (Forbes)



By Marisa Dellatto, Forbes Staff

The Fashion Awards 2018 In Partnership With Swarovski – Black & White

Louis Vuitton Designer Virgil Abloh Dead From Cancer At Age 41

TOPLINE One week after Facebook announced it would rebrand to Meta to focus on a metaverse where people can meet and connect virtually using any device, Nike appears among the first major brands preparing for a launch into the metaverse.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



<a href="https://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/gate.exe?f=login&amp;p_lang=english&amp;p_d=trmk" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nike</a>&nbsp;filed trademark applications last week with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for Nike-branded virtual goods, including clothing and sneakers, with sources telling&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/02/nike-is-quietly-preparing-for-the-metaverse-.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CNBC News</a>&nbsp;that the move is the company’s first step toward rolling out virtual products in the metaverse space.



The day Facebook announced its rebranding, it tweeted at Texas supermarket chain&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/Meta/status/1453898356086956044?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1453898356086956044%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mysanantonio.com%2Fnews%2Flocal%2Farticle%2FMeta-tweets-at-HEB-metaverse-16582277.php" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">H-E-B</a>, “wondering what groceries in the metaverse will look like,” signaling a potential collaboration where people could order groceries virtually online, as the supermarket chain completes construction on a new&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bizjournals.com/sanantonio/news/2020/01/10/first-look-h-e-b-s-massive-headquarters-expansion.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tech center</a>&nbsp;in San Antonio.



Meta has also hinted at working with its long-time e-commerce partner&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/meta/status/1454167184834502661?s=21" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Shopify</a>, saying it “couldn’t wait to explore” the possibilities of selling “physical and digital products” with the company in the metaverse.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tanegnt">TANEGNT</h2>



Microsoft has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/mesh" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced</a>&nbsp;it would create their own digital virtual universe called “<a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/mesh" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Microsoft Mesh</a>” — a direct competition to Facebook’s metaverse — and it would introduce new features to Microsoft Teams like 3D avatars and virtual meeting rooms as a part of its digital offerings.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



Facebook’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisakim/2021/10/28/facebook-announces-new-name-meta/?sh=9d1834c7f833">name change</a>&nbsp;and new announcements come as the company faces scrutiny for internal documents that were released by whistleblower Francis Haugen, who alleged the company allowed misinformation to spread on its platform and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2021/09/29/facebook-publishes-criticized-instagram-research-into-teen-health-ahead-of-congressional-testimony/?sh=797e48a8310e">ignored research</a>&nbsp;that its apps were harmful to teen mental health, which Zuckerberg has denied. In an effort to distance itself from the allegations, the company rebranded and announced a slew of new features coming to its platforms, including the building of its metaverse. Zuckerberg said they had high hopes for it, with a&nbsp;<a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2021/10/founders-letter/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">goal</a>&nbsp;of reaching a billion people and hosting “hundreds of billions of dollars of digital commerce.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-to-watch-out-for">WHAT TO WATCH OUT FOR</h2>



At Facebook’s annual Connect conference, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg gave some&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisakim/2021/10/28/facebook-announces-new-name-meta/?sh=9d1834c7f833">details</a>&nbsp;into the digital world the company hopes to build, saying it would create virtual spaces for work and education, as well as virtual workout sessions. In a&nbsp;<a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2021/10/founders-letter/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">founder’s letter</a>&nbsp;released with the launch of the company’s new name Meta, Zuckerberg said people would be able to do “almost anything you can imagine” and that they want the metaverse to feel as if a person is “right there with another person or in another place.”&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisakim/2021/10/28/facebook-announces-new-name-meta/?sh=9d1834c7f833">Facebook Announces New Name: Meta</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2021/11/02/most-americans-still-like-facebook-poll-finds-but-not-mark-zuckerberg-or-its-new-meta-name/?sh=73fc2a941cbd">Most Americans Still Like Facebook, Poll Finds—But Not Mark Zuckerberg Or Its New Meta Name</a> (Forbes)



<meta charset="utf-8">By Kimberlee Speakman, Forbes Staff

In this photo illustration a Nike logo seen displayed on a

Virtual Nikes: Shoe Giant Follows Facebook Into The Metaverse

Billie Eilish is stepping back into the spotlight—this time, with a fresh pair of kicks: The singer announced Tuesday that she will be releasing Air Jordan 15 and Air Jordan 1 KO styles in collaboration with Nike.



Scheduled to drop on September 27th and 30th—on Eilish’s&nbsp;<a href="https://store.billieeilish.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">online store</a>&nbsp;and Nike’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nike.com/launch" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">SNKR</a>&nbsp;site, respectively—the sneakers are vegan and made from more than 20% recycled materials, fitting for a star who wore Oscar de la Renta&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/13/style/met-gala-billie-eilish.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">go fur-free</a>&nbsp;as a condition of wearing the designer to the recent Met Gala.



“You can make cool s***t and you don’t have to be wasteful,” she said in a video for <a href="https://www.nike.com/launch/t/behind-the-design-billie-eilish-ajko-1-and-aj-15?cp=usns_aff_nike_content_PID_100093542_Skimlinks&amp;cid=4942550&amp;cjevent=32fc5e211bdd11ec82a29e460a82b836" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nike</a> on the collection.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/https%3A%2F%2Fspecials-images.forbesimg.com%2Fimageserve%2F614b94786f7e1b82d9a98203%2Fnike-be-02-114-v3-final%2F960x0.jpg%3Ffit%3Dscale" alt="nike_be_02_114_v3_final" width="481" height="758"/><figcaption>Going Green: Eilish&#8217;s sneakers are vegan with more than 20% recycled material.&nbsp;NIKE</figcaption></figure></div>



The designs also come with a healthy dose of nostalgia: The Air Jordan 1s are green, an ode to her iconic former hair color.



“This color is such a classic, stupid, little ‘old me’ thing, I guess,” Eilish said. “I really wanted to have almost a kind of ode to myself, in an appreciative way, in a kind of sentimental way.”MORE FOR YOU<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimclash/2021/09/21/john-fogerty-gives-rare-interview-headlines-pandemic-benefit-concerts/">John Fogerty Gives Rare Interview, Headlines Pandemic Benefit Concerts</a><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/isabellord/2021/09/13/the-best-of-the-met-gala-red-carpet-2021/">The Best Of The Met Gala Red Carpet 2021</a><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimclash/2021/09/22/will-creedence-clearwater-revival-ever-reunite-we-asked-john-fogerty-thatand-much-more/">Will Creedence Clearwater Revival Ever Reunite? We Asked John Fogerty That &#8211; And Much More</a>



But what she really loves about the Air Jordan 1 KOs are their style. “These are the best shape, with anything—with pants, with shorts, with dresses, with skirts,” she said, a fact which she herself has proven, sporting them countless times on stage.



The 15s, meanwhile, honor Eilish’s present aesthetic in their neutral tan. “The 15s have actually been my favorite Jordan, since I knew what Jordans were,” she said. “I begged for the 15s, in the black and the red, and when I got them&#8230;I looked at them as if they were $1 million sitting right in front of me.”



Inspired by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.flightclub.com/air-jordans/air-jordan-15" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">NASA’s X-15 fighter jet</a>, the 15s are “not a popular shoe,” Eilish continued, “and I don’t give a f***k. Because what you feel about something you love deeply is all that matters in the world.”

Screenshot 2021-09-23 at 18.30.43

Billie Eilish And Nike Join Forces On New Vegan Air Jordans

TOPLINE For this year’s Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute Benefit, better known as the Met Gala, attendees were instructed to wear red carpet outfits that fit in with the exhibit theme of “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion,” resulting in gowns in shades of red, white and blue, by many American designers.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340170524-1024x680.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-52505" width="673" height="446" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340170524-1024x680.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340170524-300x199.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340170524-768x510.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340170524-1536x1021.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340170524-2048x1361.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 673px) 100vw, 673px" /><figcaption>NEW YORK, NEW YORK &#8211; SEPTEMBER 13: Anna Wintour departs The Mark Hotel for the 2021 Met Gala on September 13, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure></div>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



Along with American-style outfits, this year’s guestlist reflected the USA theme: inaugural poet&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/carlieporterfield/2021/01/20/amanda-gormans-inauguration-poem-was-partly-inspired-by-the-capitol-riots/?sh=3bed25fc4c5b">Amanda Gorman</a>&nbsp;served as a co-chair of the gala while Vice President Kamala Harris’ stepdaughter, model&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/carlieporterfield/2021/01/28/kamala-harris-stepdaughter-just-landed-a-massive-modeling-contract/">Ella Emhoff</a>, scored an exclusive invite after both women went viral online over their appearances at President Joe Biden’s inauguration.



The first Met Gala held since 2019, the event required attendees to present proof of vaccination and a negative coronavirus test, which pushed rapper Nicki Minaj to announce she would not be attending.



The Met Gala raises millions each year for the Met’s Costume Institute, which opened in 2014 and holds the museum’s fashion collection, and marks the beginning of the wing’s annual fashion exhibit.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340173730-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-52507" width="669" height="446" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340173730-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340173730-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340173730-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340173730-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340173730-2048x1365.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 669px) 100vw, 669px" /><figcaption>NEW YORK, NEW YORK &#8211; SEPTEMBER 13: (EXCLUSIVE COVERAGE) Alexis Ohanian and Serena Williams depart The 2021 Met Gala Celebrating In America: A Lexicon Of Fashion at Metropolitan Museum of Art on September 13, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by Cindy Ord/MG21/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure></div>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340171917-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-52506" width="653" height="435" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340171917-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340171917-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340171917-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340171917-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340171917-2048x1365.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 653px) 100vw, 653px" /><figcaption>NEW YORK, NEW YORK &#8211; SEPTEMBER 13: (EXCLUSIVE COVERAGE) Megan Thee Stallion departs The 2021 Met Gala Celebrating In America: A Lexicon Of Fashion at Metropolitan Museum of Art on September 13, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/MG21/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue )</figcaption></figure></div>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340169395-1024x766.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-52504" width="662" height="495" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340169395-1024x766.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340169395-300x224.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340169395-768x574.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340169395-1536x1149.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340169395-2048x1532.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 662px) 100vw, 662px" /><figcaption>NEW YORK, NEW YORK &#8211; SEPTEMBER 13: Maisie Williams departs The Mark Hotel for the 2021 Met Gala on September 13, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure></div>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340168770-1-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-52503" width="701" height="467" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340168770-1-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340168770-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340168770-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340168770-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340168770-1-2048x1365.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 701px) 100vw, 701px" /><figcaption>NEW YORK, NEW YORK &#8211; SEPTEMBER 13: Ella Emhoff attends The 2021 Met Gala Celebrating In America: A Lexicon Of Fashion at Metropolitan Museum of Art on September 13, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by John Shearer/WireImage)</figcaption></figure></div>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340168658-717x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-52502" width="497" height="710" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340168658-717x1024.jpg 717w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340168658-210x300.jpg 210w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340168658-768x1097.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340168658-1076x1536.jpg 1076w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340168658-1434x2048.jpg 1434w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340168658-scaled.jpg 1793w" sizes="(max-width: 497px) 100vw, 497px" /><figcaption>NEW YORK, NEW YORK &#8211; SEPTEMBER 13: Leon Bridges departs The Mark Hotel for the 2021 Met Gala on September 13, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure></div>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340167487-1-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-52501" width="618" height="412" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340167487-1-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340167487-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340167487-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340167487-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340167487-1-2048x1365.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 618px) 100vw, 618px" /><figcaption>NEW YORK, NEW YORK &#8211; SEPTEMBER 13: Co-chair, Billie Eilish attends The 2021 Met Gala Celebrating In America: A Lexicon Of Fashion at Metropolitan Museum of Art on September 13, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by John Shearer/WireImage)</figcaption></figure></div>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340163398-1-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-52500" width="738" height="492" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340163398-1-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340163398-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340163398-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340163398-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340163398-1-2048x1365.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 738px) 100vw, 738px" /><figcaption>NEW YORK, NEW YORK &#8211; SEPTEMBER 13: Lil Nas X attends The 2021 Met Gala Celebrating In America: A Lexicon Of Fashion at Metropolitan Museum of Art on September 13, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by John Shearer/WireImage)</figcaption></figure></div>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340162789-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-52499" width="664" height="443" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340162789-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340162789-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340162789-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340162789-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340162789-2048x1365.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 664px) 100vw, 664px" /><figcaption>NEW YORK, NEW YORK &#8211; SEPTEMBER 13: Co-chair Timothée Chalamet attends The 2021 Met Gala Celebrating In America: A Lexicon Of Fashion at Metropolitan Museum of Art on September 13, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic)</figcaption></figure></div>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340131525-683x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-52498" width="609" height="913" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340131525-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340131525-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340131525-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340131525-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340131525-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/GettyImages-1340131525-scaled.jpg 1707w" sizes="(max-width: 609px) 100vw, 609px" /><figcaption>NEW YORK, NEW YORK &#8211; SEPTEMBER 13: (EXCLUSIVE COVERAGE) Carolyn B. Maloney attends the The 2021 Met Gala Celebrating In America: A Lexicon Of Fashion at Metropolitan Museum of Art on September 13, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/MG21/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue )</figcaption></figure></div>



By Carlie Porterfield, Forbes Staff

metgala

Met Gala: Ella Emhoff, Amanda Gorman And Lil Nas X Pay Tribute To ‘In America’ Theme (Photos)

Move over Lagos and Cape Town. It’s Durban’s turn to dazzle the continent’s fashion fraternity.



DURBAN, IN THE KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province of South Africa, is known for many things – the sun, the sea and the food, but certainly not for its fashion. But that landscape seems to be changing now, and the coastal town seems to be making a splash on fashion runways. 



Notwithstanding that the four-day Durban Fashion Fair is becoming an item on the country’s annual social itinerary, the city’s small but growing fashion industry is getting a fresh makeover. The South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee has also now found a team in Durban to design athletic apparel for the upcoming Tokyo Olympics (if it happens as planned). 



“I think at the moment [Durban is] also [in] the fashion race and we’re also getting there in terms of other parts of the country with a bigger fashion scene,” says model Khwezi Ngwenya Ntombela. “The programs here are helping our designers-intraining get better and step up their game, so each crop gets better with each year. So, as the fashion changes, they change along with it and enhance their skills, which will eventually make Durban a fashion capital.”



Ntombela has been modeling since 2006, and is now the owner of Mold Models, a school training young aspirants to sashay down the ramp. 



“I love the idea of training, teaching and transferring my knowledge. Even when I watch a [fashion] show, I enjoy watching models who know what they are doing and are confident, and knowing that I [had] a part [to play] in that…”she gushes. 



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Picture-2-1024x683.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-51676" width="597" height="398" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Picture-2-1024x683.jpeg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Picture-2-300x200.jpeg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Picture-2-768x512.jpeg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Picture-2-1536x1024.jpeg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Picture-2-2048x1365.jpeg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 597px) 100vw, 597px" /><figcaption>Swastika Maney and Sanyukta Singh</figcaption></figure></div>



Mother and daughter, Swastika Maney and Sanyukta Singh, both designers and joint owners of House of S and S the Label in KZN, have been in the business long enough to agree. We meet them at a café in Pietermaritzburg in KZN, where they are seated, dressed in blue and red and with a pink handbag perched on the table. 



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignleft size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Picture-5-683x1024.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-51682" width="355" height="532" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Picture-5-683x1024.jpeg 683w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Picture-5-200x300.jpeg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Picture-5-768x1152.jpeg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Picture-5-1024x1536.jpeg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Picture-5-1365x2048.jpeg 1365w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Picture-5-scaled.jpeg 1707w" sizes="(max-width: 355px) 100vw, 355px" /><figcaption>Designs from House of S</figcaption></figure></div>



The cheerful colors belong to the world they come from – the world of design and dress-making. At their boutique, they curate and retail Indo-Western clothing with pieces imported from India, as Maney explains: “Every piece has been personally selected by me on my travels to India; the textures, colors and styles have all been chosen to make sure I am catering to the taste of all my clients.” 



Since its inception in 2011, the brands have grown and the duo say they have styled the likes of South African celebrities such as Shashi Naidoo and Carishma Basday. 



“I initially started out with 10 pieces on a table in my living room and here we are, 10 years later, in our boutique in Durban selling to clients in-store and shipping to the rest of the world,” adds Maney. 



Having initially begun as House of S, and catering to a mature, more conservative demographic, the brand has since expanded its offerings. S the Label, which Singh has been working on since the age of 17, has its own youthful stamp. Prior to the pandemic, the pair had begun to export their clothes across Africa and have since resumed this with the easing of the lockdown. 



Now at the cusp of launching their own designs and label, they have no intention of slowing down. No stranger to the fashion business, Durban-based Neil Ramautar has also styled celebrities and the well-heeled in the city. 



“When I was younger, my biggest fear was being homeless. I did not have a good childhood and I knew I had to do something… This career happened by accident and I took it and ran with it and here we are today,” says Ramautar, who rose from a “promotional spray boy” for a beauty brand to star stylist. Having done makeup for the likes of names such as Khanyi Mbau and Kajal Bagwandeen locally, he attests to also having made up international singer Miguel and Bollywood star, Bipasha Basu. 



When discussing the fashion scene in Durban, he believes it is the blended culture that makes it unique. “We are happy being in our little world here. We’re not really concerned about the rest of the country, but the rest of the country doesn’t have anything on our culture down here, we have our own little fashion world,” he reflects. 



With a number of projects in the pipeline, a makeup line to his name and a waiting list that could stretch from one end of the Durban coastline to the other, Ramautar is clearly in vogue. Also a part of the Durban fashion industry is Shezaad Ally, in demand for his slick bridal shoots and fashion photography. 



<div class="wp-block-media-text alignwide is-stacked-on-mobile" style="grid-template-columns:29% auto"><figure class="wp-block-media-text__media"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="1024" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/15966139_1246616548757183_1944824179383789545_n-1024x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-51670 size-full" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/15966139_1246616548757183_1944824179383789545_n-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/15966139_1246616548757183_1944824179383789545_n-300x300.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/15966139_1246616548757183_1944824179383789545_n-150x150.jpg 150w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/15966139_1246616548757183_1944824179383789545_n-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/15966139_1246616548757183_1944824179383789545_n-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/15966139_1246616548757183_1944824179383789545_n-2048x2048.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure><div class="wp-block-media-text__content">
We have our own little fashion world [in Durban]. – Neil Ramautar
</div></div>



Having started out with photography as a hobby during a gap year from law school, six years later, his pastime has become his profession and the gap year has become a permanent mode of existence for Ally who also sees photography as a way to relieve the pressures of life. His photoshoots embody Durban’s unique culture as he explains: “There are so many different cultural backgrounds in Durban. Within each culture, you will find that they all have their own unique style to them. And that’s what I love. I love working on new ideas, trying new concepts within people’s different styles.” 



The Durban Fashion Fair is a platform for upcoming designers as well, some of who are making waves in the sunny beach town. We speak to Mbali Zulu, who is part of the team that has developed athletic apparel for the Olympics and Paralympics. 



Having studied fashion design at the Durban University of Technology, she previously worked for some big retailers in South Africa as a fashion buyer. Currently, she is one of the eight rising star designers to showcase at this year’s Vodacom Durban July. 



“My favorite so far has been being part of the Durban Fashion Fair mentorship program which opened doors to be a part of this amazing opportunity to design the opening ceremony outfits for the South African athletic team,” says Zulu. 



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/SDR_9652-683x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-51659" width="362" height="543" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/SDR_9652-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/SDR_9652-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/SDR_9652-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/SDR_9652-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/SDR_9652-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/SDR_9652-scaled.jpg 1707w" sizes="(max-width: 362px) 100vw, 362px" /><figcaption>DFF Mentees Show 2020</figcaption></figure></div>



And on being inspired by Durban? 



“Durban fashion has its own unique handwriting. It’s inspired by the mixture of culture… My design signature is inspired by Africa and my culture mixed with a hint of Indian fusion. I love the bold colors from both cultures, the beautiful embroidery on the Indian garment and the stunning Africa beads from the Zulu traditional garment.” 



For the Tokyo Games, the team has designed ready to-wear outfits for the athletes. 



“We designed a stunning print which represents South Africa. We used natural fabrics. We wanted the design to represent every South African… The designs were inspired by the athletes. When they briefed us, they told us about their dream from a young age to represent their country in the Olympics. Nelson Mandela also had a dream to unite South Africa through sport. The design embodies unity and the love we have for our country,” says Zulu. 



Ruth Unwin, who began as a graphic designer before she was drawn in by the allure and appeal of the fashion industry, is also a part of the team designing for the Olympics and Paralympics, working at Mr Price Sport and together with Gavin Maxwell, the head designer of men’s apparel at the brand.



“It has been a fantastic and exciting journey for us as a team and brand…,” they exude. “Durban is unique for the climate, coastal weather and sea, sun and sand. These elements served as inspiration for the warm colors, lightweight textured fabric in easy wearing silhouettes that also suggest the ease of the lifestyle we have here.” 



Designer Nompumelelo Mimi Mjadu also concurs: “Durban’s history and the surroundings… there’s so many stories to tell. Durban has developed a lot of innovative designers through the years… Durban has more undiscovered talent.”



 



<div class="wp-block-media-text alignwide is-stacked-on-mobile" style="grid-template-columns:38% auto"><figure class="wp-block-media-text__media"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="683" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/131416226_1815986198554972_8775049496683180348_n-1024x683.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-51656 size-full" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/131416226_1815986198554972_8775049496683180348_n-1024x683.jpeg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/131416226_1815986198554972_8775049496683180348_n-300x200.jpeg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/131416226_1815986198554972_8775049496683180348_n-768x512.jpeg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/131416226_1815986198554972_8775049496683180348_n-1536x1024.jpeg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/131416226_1815986198554972_8775049496683180348_n-2048x1366.jpeg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure><div class="wp-block-media-text__content">
<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">My design signature is inspired by Africa and my culture mixed with a hint of Indian fusion. I love the bold colors from both cultures, the beautiful embroidery on the Indian garment and the stunning Africa beads from the Zulu traditional garment. – Mbali Zulu</blockquote>
</div></div>



And with that, the city is also developing a new and evolving breed of fashionistas and style mavens capturing the imagination and interest of Africa’s growing creative economy.

Zwandyy

Fashion On The Coast: Durban’s Sartorial Moves

Elizabeth Isiorho is ramping up her modelling business to provide more young people international opportunities and put African beauty on the map.



COVID-19 MAY HAVE SHAKEN the very foundation of global fashion, but the one thing that has stayed is the focus on Africa as the world’s resource hub for the creative industry, with its surging youth dividend and gifted talent pool. 



Nigerian entrepreneur and former beauty queen Elizabeth Isiorho knows this only too well, as she takes her business to the next stage, now launching Future Face Africa, which she hopes will be a pan-African talent search to discover more African faces to showcase to the rest of the world. 



Her modeling agency, Beth Model Management Africa, has been at the forefront of this quest, since 2004, to provide a platform for African models abroad. 



“Models will be given a chance to win a two-year international modeling contract with a top modeling agency, offering hopefuls not just a launchpad but a career on the world stage,” she says in an interview with FORBES AFRICA over Zoom from London in May. 



Isiorho herself had her breakthrough in the industry with the international agency, Elite Model Management. But first, a look back at how it all began. Growing up, Isiorho was influenced by her mother, a veteran in the Nigerian entertainment industry and die-hard fashion lover who always told her daughter she resembled supermodel Naomi Campbell. 



Who knew then that Isiorho would become friends with Campbell several years later and follow in her role model’s footsteps? While African fashion and beauty is now celebrated abroad, this was not the case when Isiorho first started. Modelling had several negative perceptions in Africa that she needed to break. 



Born in London and relocating to the United Kingdom (UK) Isiorho studied Business and Information Technology at the London Guildhall University. With a passion for the modelling industry instilled in her from an early age, she began her career doing a few shows in London until a serendipitous encounter with a friend put her firmly on her destined path.



“A friend of mine showed me some magazines that had Miss Nigeria UK and she said I should go for it. I was extremely shy but I went for the 10-day boot camp and on the ninth day, I said ‘this is not for me, I’m not walking that stage in a bikini’ and I said to my mum ‘I am not doing it anymore’. My mum said she had bought her ticket to London to come and surprise me on stage so I should stick it out. I did and I won the competition, to my surprise,” recalls Isiorho.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignleft size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/image1-736x1024.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-51624" width="436" height="606" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/image1-736x1024.jpeg 736w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/image1-216x300.jpeg 216w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/image1-768x1068.jpeg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/image1-1104x1536.jpeg 1104w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/image1-1472x2048.jpeg 1472w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/image1-scaled.jpeg 1841w" sizes="(max-width: 436px) 100vw, 436px" /><figcaption>Photo by Adebayo Jolaoso</figcaption></figure></div>



After winning the pageant, Isiorho returned to Nigeria in 2003 to continue to build her career in the modeling industry. And that is where she noticed a glaring gap in the market. 



“Because I won Miss Nigeria UK, I was very popular when I came back to Nigeria and I said to myself ‘let me get a proper agency to manage me’. But there was none back then. I did my research and I went to companies and one company told me to just drop my CD. So, there was no modeling agency in Nigeria. I tried going to the big agencies in London that work with me today but I didn’t get far.”



Instead of giving up, she decided to set up her own agency instead and Beth Model Management Africa was born. Over the years, Isiorho has grown the brand from only 10 models to over 200 with 48 of them placed worldwide across various agencies, making Beth one of the largest modelling agencies in Africa.



Not one to give up, she used grit and tenacity to pioneer the model management model in Africa. 



“When I started, I thought it would be easy but the Nigerian market was very difficult. I am talking about 2004 when parents are thinking a certain way and parents don’t want their kids to model. I found a few faces and the issue I had was trying to convince the parents that it was not about prostitution. That was the negative stereotype because they felt they exposed their bodies etc.



“The other issue was trying to sign contracts with models when we find the right faces. People were scared to sign in Nigeria whereas in London, people were excited to sign with an agency,” says Isiorho.



Due to the lack of demand for African models at the time, Isiorho decided to start a model convention. Her thinking was simple. If the international fashion industry would not accept African models, she would bring them to Africa to see the untapped potential for themselves.



“So, I sent them emails and out of 11 agencies, nine of them replied to say they were coming and one of the agencies, which was Elite Models, said ‘we have a model search and would like you to be a part of it’.”



Founded in 1983, Elite Model Look is a prestigious international modeling contest credited with discovering supermodels such as Cindy Crawford, Gisele Bundchen, Lara Stone and Alessandra Ambrosia. This was the big break Isiorho needed for her agency. In 2007, she exclusively secured the rights to organize the Elite Model Look Nigeria/Africa contest.



“That was my biggest breakthrough because as an agency, for you to partner with one of the biggest modeling agencies in the world is a big deal and we worked together for 13 years. We discovered many stars like Mayowa Nicholas, Davidson Obennebo, Chika Emmanuella, Victor Ndigwe, Tobi Momoh, who are all on global campaigns,” says Isiorho.



Over the years, Isiorho has placed indigenous African beauty in global campaigns such as Victoria’s Secret and New York Fashion Week to name a few.



Her resilience has not gone unnoticed amongst her peers. “I have worked with Beth Models since the company’s inception and I’m filled with pride. The investment Elizabeth has made in the modeling industry across Africa is beyond glamorizing fashion; it’s the wider role the agency plays in changing stereotypes about working with Africans, giving African creatives a voice and ensuring African youth are empowered socio-economically,” says Omoyemi Akerele, the founder of Lagos Fashion Week.



Isiorho’s relationship with Elite continues to flourish even as she charts her own path. 



“Beth Models is a trusted collaborator of Elite Model Management, having organized Elite Model Look contest in Nigeria for over 10 years… In recent years, Beth Models expanded the search to Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya and Rwanda and used their experienced scouting skills to find fresh new talent with the potential for international modeling careers,” says Vick Mihaci, 



President, Elite Management Worldwide. With the cross-over of Africa’s rich talent repository, through incoming interest as well as the efforts of cultural emissaries such as Isiorho, it’s not long before the continent becomes the true face of the future.

The Model Entrepreneur Who Is Getting More African Faces On the Global Stage

Anjali Borkhataria is trying to change the narrative of fashion in Tanzania with a local brand aimed at everyone.



BY INAARA GANGJI



IT WAS ONE OF THOSE RARE OCCASIONS when bold neon colors, oversized white outdoor workwear and bright uncoordinated prints made their way on to the ramps of the annual Swahili Fashion Week in Tanzania. Local fashion designer, Anjali Borkhataria’s brand, EK AN TIK, its name inspired by Hindu scriptures, was a breath of fresh air in an industry that has been assumed to be set in its ways. 



“I believe African fashion is not limited to the printed patterns or kitenge, but we have so much to work with… there can definitely be more diverse design, but still have that African signature,” says Borkhataria to FORBES AFRICA. Borkhataria won Innovative Designer of the Year at this year’s fashion week and her brand has been worn by celebrities across the region and the African continent including Kenyan musician Tanasha Donna, Tanzanian celebrity Romy Jons and singer Mbosso, and has also appeared in a music video by popular Tanzanian singer Diamond Platnumz, featuring Congolese singer Koffi Olomide. 



But Borkhataria believes her brand is not made only for celebrities. Her first collection is workwear inspired by regular businessmen, electricians, and construction industry workers. It’s also unisex, oversized, and flowing. And while she does not prefer comparing herself to other designers in the region because creativity is not a competition for her, she believes her designs inspired by local street culture set her apart. 



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignleft size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/MIKE-DEO-2-1-819x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-50422" width="338" height="422" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/MIKE-DEO-2-1-819x1024.jpg 819w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/MIKE-DEO-2-1-240x300.jpg 240w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/MIKE-DEO-2-1-768x960.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/MIKE-DEO-2-1-1229x1536.jpg 1229w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/MIKE-DEO-2-1-1638x2048.jpg 1638w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/MIKE-DEO-2-1.jpg 2000w" sizes="(max-width: 338px) 100vw, 338px" /></figure></div>



“Because, life happens on the streets, the streets influence me more than anything. So, I try to imply that into my design,” says the 23-year-old who has been a designer for the last three years. However, despite having studied at the Cape Town College of Fashion Design in South Africa, when it comes to the creative process, she does not believe in doing things in one way or the other. 



Her second collection showcased at the latest edition of the Swahili Fashion Week was inspired by games. Titled ‘GameScape’, the inspiration for it came from her father, who sells cars, batteries, and tires. It was also inspired by the Covid-19 pandemic as everybody sat at home and played games. “I don’t know what my creative process looks like because sometimes it’s a movie, sometimes it’s a piece of art, sometimes it’s nothing,” she exudes.



The tight timeframes involved in creating collections hinder the creative process too, with usually only five weeks between conception and production. She is not a fan of sketching either, as she goes with flow, not following a typical or organized process. This saves her time and sets realistic expectations, in her opinion.



Borkhataria also does all her production in-house and on her own. And she hopes that the independent career path she has taken by returning home to Tanzania from South Africa, inspires other young people in her country, no matter their background, to also be able to pursue fashion if they are so keen. 



She also credits her success to her supportive parents. All of this may make it seem like fashion is fun, and it is for her, but the industry is not free of challenges, she opines. She thinks brands create so many collections every year, but there aren’t enough people who can afford to wear them. “So, I wish fashion would go back a little bit. Today, everybody thinks that they know what fashion is, but they don’t know the main essence. For instance, I like music, but it’s not like I’m going to actually make it. So, I don’t like it when people buy a dress from H&amp;M for cheap and they think, ‘I know what fashion is’… I definitely want to change that,” she adds.



This is the reason why she wants high-quality local brands to reach the most people and hopes to have a local store of her own, as she currently works and sells from home. With all these aspirations, and while being a young, South Asian-origin female designer, doing everything on her own is not easy, she is humbled and inspired by being able to create fashion at home in Tanzania. 



“It is challenging but like in one way, it has made me very open minded. Because we are surrounded with mixed backgrounds… I think that has made me very open to different types of people. It just signifies there is hope,” she says, with faith in her craft and optimism for the world.

pic supplied

Inspiration From Where Life Happens

From Michelle Obama in Sergio Hudson raspberry to Jennifer Lopez head-to-toe in white Chanel, it was hard to pinpoint <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/tanyaklich/2021/01/20/biden-harris-inauguration-day-fashion-alexandra-oneill-christopher-john-rogers-amanda-gorman-lady-gaga/?sh=940d63b6db7c">which style icon shined brightest on Inauguration Day 2021</a>. That is, until the snapshot of Bernie Sanders and his woven mittens took the world by storm. 



A photo of Sanders at the inaugural ceremony became <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2021/01/20/bernie-sanders-and-his-cozy-coat-become-inaugurations-instant-meme-stars/?sh=5631c06d7773">an instant meme sensation</a>. In the snapshot, the seated, socially distanced and utterly matter-of-fact Vermont senator is sporting a gray winter coat by Burton, brown mittens handmade by Vermont second-grade teacher Jen Ellis and a blue disposable mask. 



While the politician forwent&nbsp;designer labels for the historic day, Sanders’ style and mood dominated Twitter and Instagram in the days following Wednesday’s inauguration.



By the weekend, the Sanders meme was still going strong. His now-iconic image has been transposed onto an array of other iconic images; the most popular scenes in which he was placed included Forrest Gump and Ghost, as well as the canvas of a Bob Ross painting. Bernie even made his way into a UFC octagon. 



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">Aight the winner 😂 <a href="https://t.co/IWZezOawsX">pic.twitter.com/IWZezOawsX</a>&mdash; Belal Muhammad (@bullyb170) <a href="https://twitter.com/bullyb170/status/1352742765147398147?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 22, 2021</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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Now Sanders is taking the comedic relief we all desperately needed and turning it into a force for good.



He and his team have launched the “Chairman Sanders Collection,” a line of meme-inspired T-shirts and crew neck sweatshirts available on the&nbsp;<a href="https://store.berniesanders.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bernie Campaign Store</a>&nbsp;of his official site.



When he announced the fashion drop on his Instagram account Sunday evening, hundreds of comments were already inquiring about when his team will restock the crew neck sweaters, or whether they have plans to expand the line with a meme hoodie. “Bro, just drop the crew neck again,” wrote one Instagram follower. “We can’t wear tees out here [right now]. Trying to stay cozy like you.”



“Every day, I wish the sweatshirt would go back in stock,” wrote another.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-style-default"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="618" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Screenshot-2021-01-26-at-10.16.05-1-1024x618.png" alt="" class="wp-image-49760" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Screenshot-2021-01-26-at-10.16.05-1-1024x618.png 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Screenshot-2021-01-26-at-10.16.05-1-300x181.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Screenshot-2021-01-26-at-10.16.05-1-768x463.png 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Screenshot-2021-01-26-at-10.16.05-1-1536x927.png 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Screenshot-2021-01-26-at-10.16.05-1-400x240.png 400w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Screenshot-2021-01-26-at-10.16.05-1-600x362.png 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Screenshot-2021-01-26-at-10.16.05-1.png 1866w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption>Bernie turns inauguration meme into a sweatshirt for charity.  @BERNIESANDERS / INSTAGRAM</figcaption></figure>



Prices range from $27 to $45. As of publication, the unisex sweatshirts are sold out. The men’s and women’s tees are still available, but the website informs shoppers that due to high demand, it can take up to six weeks before they receive their purchase. The tops are 100% organic spun cotton and made in the U.S.&nbsp;



In an interview with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkhnJQ54Eio" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CNN</a>, Sanders said he expects the merchandise to raise a couple million dollars for charities in Vermont, including Meals on Wheels,Feeding Chittenden, Chill Foundation and Vermont community action centers.



While Sanders’ original apparel and other campaign merchandise usually come in classic blues, whites and other brighter hues, his meme tees and sweats are available in all black. Unlike the other vibrant designer ensembles that graced the stage on Inauguration Day, you can more effortlessly incorporate Sanders’ Inauguration Day look into your daily wardrobe. The cozy and practical cotton tops can be easily matched with loungewear or jeans, or worn under a structured blazer or over a flowy silk midi slip.



Both the staid hues and classic cuts of Bernie’s meme-inspired line also give the sought-after tops the opportunity to be more a fashion staple than a fashion statement piece, as they can easily be paired with neutrals, bolds, and patterns alike—and hopefully lead to less clashing this season and beyond. 



By Tanya Klich, Forbes Staff

TOPSHOT-US-POLITICS-INAUGURATION

Why The Bernie Sanders Meme Sweatshirt Is This Season’s Best Fashion Statement And Staple

COMPILED BY: BONTLEFEELA MOGOYE PHOTOGRAPHY: MOTLABANA MONNAKGOTLA ART DIRECTION: LUCY NKOSI



THE HIGH-END LUXURY MARKET HAS NO DOUBT TAKEN A BACK SEAT DURING THE PANDEMIC, BUT FINE AESTHETICS CAN TRAVEL ACROSS TIME, SPACE AND BOUNDARIES. HERE ARE A FEW WAYS TO REVISIT OPULENCE AND LUXURY OVER THE HOLIDAY SEASON IN THE COMFORT OF YOUR HOME.



<div class="wp-block-media-text alignwide is-stacked-on-mobile"><figure class="wp-block-media-text__media"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="683" height="1024" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/IMG_1761-683x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-49434 size-full" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/IMG_1761-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/IMG_1761-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/IMG_1761-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/IMG_1761-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/IMG_1761-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/IMG_1761-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/IMG_1761-600x900.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/IMG_1761-scaled.jpg 1707w" sizes="(max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px" /></figure><div class="wp-block-media-text__content">
Lungile Radu (South African media personality)



Printed suit R6,500 ($422,10); Imprint ZA



Kefilwe Mabote (A digital creator and luxury lifestyle enthusiast in South Africa)



Blue and black printed loungewear and Corset belt; both designed by Gert-Johan Coetzee (Price on request)
</div></div>



<div class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/IMG_1470-683x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-49427" width="360" height="539" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/IMG_1470-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/IMG_1470-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/IMG_1470-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/IMG_1470-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/IMG_1470-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/IMG_1470-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/IMG_1470-600x900.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/IMG_1470-scaled.jpg 1707w" sizes="(max-width: 360px) 100vw, 360px" /></figure></div>



Black tuxedo jacket R2,800 ($181,83), Black pants R1,050 ($68,19) and Shirt R695 ($45,13), all Carducci Slip-on shoes R3,500 ($227,29)&#8211; Relevance for Men from Africa Rise, Sandton, Johannesburg



<div class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/IMG_1534-683x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-49429" width="434" height="650" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/IMG_1534-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/IMG_1534-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/IMG_1534-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/IMG_1534-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/IMG_1534-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/IMG_1534-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/IMG_1534-600x900.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/IMG_1534-scaled.jpg 1707w" sizes="(max-width: 434px) 100vw, 434px" /></figure></div>



Black two-piece: Pants R7,437 ($482,95) Top R8,437 ($547,89) all Taibo Bacar Cars supplied by: Zebra Square Gallery Hyde Park Furniture by Ligne Roset (www.lignerosetsa.co.za)



<div class="wp-block-media-text alignwide is-stacked-on-mobile"><figure class="wp-block-media-text__media"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="683" height="1024" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/IMG_1631-683x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-49431 size-full" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/IMG_1631-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/IMG_1631-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/IMG_1631-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/IMG_1631-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/IMG_1631-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/IMG_1631-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/IMG_1631-600x900.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/IMG_1631-scaled.jpg 1707w" sizes="(max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px" /></figure><div class="wp-block-media-text__content">
Over the years, I’ve invested in a few beautifully designed and custom-fitted suits that have stoodthetestoftime. Theseare significant purchases that I can still appreciate the value of.



– Lungile Radu



Nguni Cow Suit R6,800 ($441,58) By Imprint Za
</div></div>



<div class="wp-block-media-text alignwide has-media-on-the-right is-stacked-on-mobile"><figure class="wp-block-media-text__media"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="683" height="1024" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/IMG_1859-683x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-49438 size-full" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/IMG_1859-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/IMG_1859-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/IMG_1859-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/IMG_1859-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/IMG_1859-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/IMG_1859-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/IMG_1859-600x900.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/IMG_1859-scaled.jpg 1707w" sizes="(max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px" /></figure><div class="wp-block-media-text__content">
I have noted that luxury is something one needs to do for oneself. Whether I shop online or in-store, the experience is the same.



– Kefilwe Mabote



Alex lime green dress R18,000 ($1168,90) Taibo Bacar
</div></div>

IMG_1694

Luxury Gift Guide: The Luxe Factor

The ‘fast’ fashion industry is responsible for abominable levels of water consumption, pollution, and waste. Enterprising entrepreneurs in South Africa are looking to natural materials and upcycling to make every-day clothing more sustainable. 



<div class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><figure class="alignleft size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Atlas-Label-Wetsuit-3-730x1024.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-48498" width="313" height="439" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Atlas-Label-Wetsuit-3-730x1024.jpeg 730w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Atlas-Label-Wetsuit-3-214x300.jpeg 214w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Atlas-Label-Wetsuit-3-768x1077.jpeg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Atlas-Label-Wetsuit-3-1095x1536.jpeg 1095w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Atlas-Label-Wetsuit-3-1460x2048.jpeg 1460w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Atlas-Label-Wetsuit-3-300x421.jpeg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Atlas-Label-Wetsuit-3-600x842.jpeg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Atlas-Label-Wetsuit-3-scaled.jpeg 1825w" sizes="(max-width: 313px) 100vw, 313px" /><figcaption>Atlas Label uses material that can be repaired many times over</figcaption></figure></div>



What are you wearing? Examine your outfit as you read this. Maybe a T-shirt or a trendy new dress. Denims, perhaps? Or more likely a stretchy pair of sweatpants and socks now that we&#8217;re all mostly working from home. 



‘Fast’ fashion makes clothes-shopping more affordable but at an increasingly environmental cost. According to a 2018 United Nations report, “the global fashion industry produces 20 percent of global wastewater and 10 percent of global carbon emissions – more than all international flights and maritime shipping”. Then there’s textile dyeing, pegged as the second-largest polluter of water globally. Did you know it takes around 7,570 liters of water to create a pair of jeans?&nbsp;



Step one in sustainability: Reduce. Then reuse and recycle. One antidote to fast fashion is to shift away from seasons. Pre-pandemic, big-name brands would launch collections between four and six times year, with fashion houses like Zara reportedly introducing more than 20 different collections a year.&nbsp;



Cristina Rovere is the founder of environment-friendly swimwear and wetsuit brand, Atlas Label. “We do not make any seasonal collections&#8230; and we encourage everyone who owns an Atlas Label product to consider repairs as a first option. We believe in making better choices and in taking responsibility for what you purchase. Use it, love it, care for it. Repeat.”&nbsp;



A love for surfing (and thus the ocean) led Rovere to create wetsuits that are better for the planet. “As surfers, we see the amount of rubbish first-hand on the beach. It’s a push to start making better choices,” she tells FORBES AFRICA. Typically, wetsuits are made from a kind of rubber called neoprene, a synthetic polymer derived from petroleum, but her Japanese-inspired suits use limestone neoprene (rubber derived from crushed limestone) instead. “It has incredible technical properties and can be repaired many times over.”  



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-style-default"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="683" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/HempLove-2-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-48499" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/HempLove-2-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/HempLove-2-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/HempLove-2-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/HempLove-2-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/HempLove-2-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/HempLove-2-600x400.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



<div class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><figure class="alignright size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/HempLove-1-683x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-48505" width="346" height="518" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/HempLove-1-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/HempLove-1-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/HempLove-1-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/HempLove-1-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/HempLove-1-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/HempLove-1-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/HempLove-1-600x900.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/HempLove-1-scaled.jpg 1707w" sizes="(max-width: 346px) 100vw, 346px" /><figcaption>HempLove uses natural materials for its garments.</figcaption></figure></div>



Generally speaking, natural materials are better for the environment, but it’s not a straightforward argument. Cotton, for example, is not a prominent pollutant but has downsides in terms of labor and land. Lorè Botha co-founded HempLove in April 2019. “Based on our research, hemp requires ten times less the amount of water and half the amount of land than cotton. Our slow collection entails that all the garments and textiles are dyed using plant waste sourced from farmers and restaurants in South Africa.”&nbsp;



Such natural materials are not new on the fashion scene, but they are increasingly being used from head to toe. Launched in 2014 by a family of milliners, Simon and Mary hats are made from 100% wool felt and hemp. (They are also part of a tree-planting project with South African reforestation organization, Greenpop and use rainwater to save roughly 30,000 liters per month). 



Laduma Ngxokolo has also been using local mohair, and merino wool since 2012 for luxury knitwear brand, Maxhosa Africa, and Davie Hutchison founded bamboo-blended Sexy Socks in 2014. “Sexy Socks was, I think, one of the first social enterprise brands in the South African market, and we have always been eco-conscious.” The colorful socks are not only made from sustainable and biodegradable materials but also have social impact. For every pair of Sexy Socks bought, one goes to a child in need. 



When natural materials aren&#8217;t used, clothing clogs the system. According to American Vogue, “an estimated 50 million tonnes of clothing is discarded every year, and most of it will not biodegrade in a landfill”.&nbsp;



Makhosazane Rosa Sekgwama, has come up with an innovative way to combat such fashion waste. “We use recycled materials from the local clothing industry that would otherwise be discarded. Local factory offcuts become the yarn that we use to crochet all our products,” Sekgwama tells FORBES AFRICA.&nbsp;



Her brand, ROSA Handmade in SA, made The V&amp;A Waterfront&#8217;s ‘100 Beautiful Things’ list and consists of woven rugs, lovingly-made baby baskets and handbags. However, being green comes with its challenges. &nbsp;



“We rely on yarn wholesalers who directly source from the clothing factories making upscaling impossible as there is a limit of each color we get from them. We also avoid dyeing materials ourselves, which would enable us to make more products of the same color range but pose an environmental hazard.”&nbsp;



Back in Cape Town, growing interest in Atlas Label wetsuits led Rovere to investigate a more affordable offering for ocean-lovers. “Our swimwear is made of Econyl, regenerated Italian nylon made from post-consumer waste, including ghost fishing nets removed from our oceans. Econyl is a certified product, and we have a signed communications agreement with them, which keeps us in constant contact and sets us apart from many other businesses.”&nbsp; &nbsp;



Nombuso Nomzamo Khanyile from Afrikan Passions Designs tells FORBES AFRICA that footwear also springs from waste. “We upcycle discarded car tyres and use them as sandal soles, reducing car tyres as environmental pollutants. The majority of our customers are attracted to us mainly because we upcycle.”



Indeed, this kind of thinking is no longer niche. Sekgwama says: “The competition is high. Both new and existing retailers are changing to be more eco-friendly, attract discerning consumer attention and gain preference. The scourge of Covid-19 [also] opened more eyes to the need to support local businesses and authentic products manufactured locally.”&nbsp;



Rovere agrees and says “South Africa is still catching up, but with the internet being such an open asset to everyone, the global movement for consumerism has definitely shifted towards more conscious purchases. We even see changes in the companies that used to create fast fashion, so overall knowledge around sustainability is increasing”. &nbsp;



South African Fashion Week (SAFW) has 600 local designers on the database, according to the event’s founder and director Lucilla Booyzen. “There are a lot of grey areas around sustainability for our SA Fashion Designers. None of them, as far as I know, are fully sustainable, as it is very difficult for any company to be fully sustainable.”&nbsp;



Zippers, underwires, buttons and packaging can all hamper sustainability efforts, but has there been a rise in eco-conscious clothing on the runways? “Yes, definitely,” Booyzen says. “This season, all the designers at SAFW are showing what we call slow fashion collections based on up-cycling, recycling and no waste&#8221;.&nbsp;



Likewise, the winter collections of more accessible household brands prove traditional retailers are catching on too. Both K-Way and Woolworths revamped their fashionable puffer jackets, filling them with recycled plastic fibers instead of duck down. Buyers at K-Way note, however, that the adoption rate to sustainable wear in South Africa is generally lower than the rest of the world and recycled synthetic has had a slow start.&nbsp;



Conscious fashion has become increasingly important in South African retail, and waste reduction on a large scale would help to close the loop and create a better circular economy. If local fashion can become more sustainable and effectively reduce the load on South African landfills, all the better. Especially given that the City of Johannesburg’s Environmental, Infrastructure and Services estimate the city has three years before landfill sites reach full capacity.&nbsp;



“Once you dip into sustainability, it becomes a part of your life,” says Rovere, likening the movement to a continuous journey. “It&#8217;s about making better choices. One item of sustainable clothing might just lead to better choices at the supermarket. It leaves a lasting impact on your purchasing decisions going forward.”



By Melanie van Zyl

AfrikanPassionDesigns_NiamhWalsh-Vorster-1

Conscious Couture: Swimwear From Fishing Nets And Soles From Tyres

Some of the best looks in Beyoncé’s 2020 album, Black is King, have come from designers from the African continent. FORBES AFRICA seeks out Queen B’s top picks.



Beyoncé Knowles-Carter’s brand-new new visual album Black is King that released on July 31 on Disney Plus, boasts an African touch, with many designers from the continent showcasing their work in it.



Out just a little over a year since the release of the live-action version of The Lion King where Beyoncé played the female lead, Nala, Black is King was originally filmed as a companion piece to The Lion King: The Gift soundtrack inspired by the movie, but the singer explains in a post on Instagram that the events of 2020 (specifically, the Black Lives Movement protesting police brutality in the United States) made the message in the film more relevant.



For the “passion project”, Beyoncé spent over a year filming, researching, and editing it as a love letter to celebrate the breadth and beauty of black ancestry.&nbsp;



“I believe that when black people tell our own stories, we can shift the axis of the world and tell our REAL history of generational wealth and richness of soul that are not told in our history books,” Beyoncé said in a post on Instagram.



Since its release, she has been praised for how she has celebrated people of color as a whole in Black is King through the representation of artists (like Pharrell Williams, Naomi Campbell and Lupita Nyongo), background dancers, and African designers. &nbsp;



To help enrich those visuals, Beyoncé’s stylist and wardrobe curator, Zerina Akers, made sure she found the right talent who would create looks that aligned with Beyoncé’s vision.



Akers wanted to reference different traditions, cultures and tribes but with a modern touch. Although she used a majority of black designers, such as Destiney Bleu and Jerome Lamaar, the stylist also sought the artistry of African designers.&nbsp;



One of those African designers is Lafalaise Dion, based in the economic capital of Côte d&#8217;Ivoire, Abidjan, who designed the shell headpieces seen throughout Black is King.



“Although I had a big vision for [my work], and the faith that I’d be able to take it far beyond Côte D’Ivoire, I never imagined I would get to this level in such a short time,” says Dion. “I am deeply honored, to say the least.”



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignleft size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/dion-5-1024x1009.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-48322" width="286" height="281" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/dion-5-1024x1009.jpeg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/dion-5-300x296.jpeg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/dion-5-768x757.jpeg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/dion-5-80x80.jpeg 80w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/dion-5-600x591.jpeg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/dion-5.jpeg 1125w" sizes="(max-width: 286px) 100vw, 286px" /><figcaption>(Photo supplied)</figcaption></figure></div>



Known to her followers as the ‘Queen of Cowries’, Dion’s creations were closely aligned with Beyoncé’s inspiration for Black Is King: wanting black Africans to reconcile and embrace African heritage, culture, and spirituality.



“They are artworks in a way, a material representation of dreams I had way before I started the brand. I wanted to do something that emanated from African spirituality,” she says.



Dion designed over 20 pieces for the project and had each piece made by hand in collaboration with local artisans. A dozen of those pieces feature in a song in the film: Brown Skin Girl, My Power, and Water.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-style-large">“I feel very grateful&#8230; It means a lot to a young African designer like me. It’s a sort of confirmation that my art has power and that many creatives around the world connect with it,” Dion adds.</blockquote>



The pearl and cowrie statement Lagbaja headpiece created by Dion and worn by Beyoncé in her Spirit music video retails at $270.40. Dion describes this particular piece as a “celebration of women as creative, divine, mystical, protective beings”.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/dion-3-1024x1012.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-48320" width="318" height="315" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/dion-3-1024x1012.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/dion-3-300x297.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/dion-3-150x150.jpg 150w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/dion-3-768x759.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/dion-3-80x80.jpg 80w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/dion-3-600x593.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/dion-3-100x100.jpg 100w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/dion-3.jpg 1125w" sizes="(max-width: 318px) 100vw, 318px" /><figcaption>(Photo Supplied)</figcaption></figure></div>



Senegalese-born designer and founder of Dakar Fashion Week, Adama Amanda Ndiaye, wanted to make sure Beyoncé was adorned in a yellow as bright as the African sun in Brown Skin Girl.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Oshun-Beyonce-Black-is-King.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-48327" width="377" height="251" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Oshun-Beyonce-Black-is-King.jpg 1000w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Oshun-Beyonce-Black-is-King-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Oshun-Beyonce-Black-is-King-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Oshun-Beyonce-Black-is-King-600x400.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 377px) 100vw, 377px" /><figcaption>(Still from Black is King)</figcaption></figure></div>



“African fashion is for sure more out there now. As a designer and fashion entrepreneur, it’s always a pleasure to expand our brand name and vision. So being able to collaborate with an iconic superstar does help shine light on us and is uplifting,” Ndiaye says. &nbsp;



Coming from a West African country known as vibrant and colorful, Ndiaye emphasizes she wants nothing more than to “promote female entrepreneurship in Senegal and Africa”.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/SKETCH-1012x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-48329" width="281" height="284" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/SKETCH-1012x1024.jpg 1012w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/SKETCH-296x300.jpg 296w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/SKETCH-768x777.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/SKETCH-80x80.jpg 80w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/SKETCH-300x304.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/SKETCH-600x607.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/SKETCH-100x100.jpg 100w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/SKETCH.jpg 1500w" sizes="(max-width: 281px) 100vw, 281px" /><figcaption>Sketch by Loza Maléombho (Photo Supplied) </figcaption></figure></div>



“I feel great, of course, because Beyoncé is an icon not only in the music industry but also for the fashion industry,” she says.



Also basking in the glory of the success of Black is King is Abidjan-born designer, Loza Maléombho, who designed a piece dubbed by Harper’s Bazaar as one of the best looks in the visual album.&nbsp;



The graphic, black-and-white ensemble with gold hardware worn by Beyoncé in Already (part of the film) has received much praise from social media.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-style-large">“I am grateful for the visibility&#8230; It happened with a spike of sales of well over 300%, which is why gratitude is a prominent feeling overall,” Maléombho says.</blockquote>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/thumbnail_image0.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-48324" width="457" height="527" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/thumbnail_image0.jpg 555w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/thumbnail_image0-260x300.jpg 260w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/thumbnail_image0-300x346.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 457px) 100vw, 457px" /><figcaption>Jacket by Maléombho. Earrings by L’Enchanteur. (Photo Supplied)</figcaption></figure></div>



It’s not difficult to see where Beyoncé may have had her inspiration from to use Maléombho in this project, as former Destiny’s Child member Kelly Rowland, who also featured in Black is King, had worn a Prussian-blue geometric structured ensemble by Maléombho in June 2019.



“The future of my brand is going to depend on the structure of the industry in Africa overall. Because with growing sales, I need to find solutions for sourcing and production. I don’t want to produce outside of Africa,” Maléombho adds.



She remains hopeful that even with Covid-19, it has provided an opportunity for the fashion industry in Africa to grow collective and collaborative initiatives.



“We [the fashion industry] are more connected, more communicative amongst ourselves. We are engaging in more conversations to find solutions for the future of our industry,” she says. “Africa has a young labor force capacity that if directed intelligently can help propel the fashion industry in the right direction.”



Maléombho’s piece in Already was paired with jewelry pieces created by L’Enchanteur. The mastermind behind this brand are the identical twins, designers Dynasty and Soull Ogun, whose accessories were also seen in the Mood 4 Eva part of the film. Though born in Brooklyn, New York, the twins say their pieces are inspired by their Nigerian and Caribbean heritage.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/thumbnail_image1-1024x532.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-48325" width="485" height="252" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/thumbnail_image1-1024x532.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/thumbnail_image1-300x156.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/thumbnail_image1-768x399.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/thumbnail_image1-600x311.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/thumbnail_image1.jpg 1125w" sizes="(max-width: 485px) 100vw, 485px" /><figcaption>(Photo Supplied)</figcaption></figure></div>



“Our brand is a lifestyle that encompasses mysticism, science, fairy tales, and a lot of folklore. And this is inspired by our parents’ background,” Soull says. “My dad is Nigerian and his tribe is Yoruba and our mother is Caribbean from the West Indies&#8230; And we were born in Brooklyn, Flatbush. So there&#8217;s all of this mixture. And I think there&#8217;s like a little bit of folklore within that mixture for us.”



The twins created the pieces for Black is King and sent them over to Akers in 2019, unaware of when the film would come out and what pieces would be used.



The ‘unknown’ was the most exciting part of this process for the Oguns because when finally the project was released, they got to watch the final product for the first time like any viewer. The only difference was that not everyone who viewed it got to see how their jewelry was curated into multiple looks in the film.



And they are still in disbelief.



“It comes in waves for me. I was in the car the other day and a Beyoncé song came on and I was like ‘yo, there is this whole film and Beyoncé is really wearing our stuff’,” says Soull.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-style-large">“When we were creating the work, I don’t think any of us anticipated the climate we would find ourselves in [the Black Lives Movement] but that being said, I think when we were creating these pieces, it feels like it was almost a foreshadowing without any of us knowing it.”</blockquote>



“With this visual album, I wanted to present elements of black history and African tradition, with a modern twist and a universal message, and what it truly means to find your self-identity and build a legacy,” Beyoncé said.



The ode to African fashion continues, transcending borders, even in these Covid times.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="640" height="370" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/thumbnail_image2.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-48326" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/thumbnail_image2.jpg 640w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/thumbnail_image2-300x173.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/thumbnail_image2-600x347.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" /><figcaption>Jewelry pieces by L’Enchanteur (Photo Supplied)</figcaption></figure>

Untitled-1

King And Queen: Beyoncé Takes Africa To The World

Japanese designer Kenzo Takada has died at age 81 after battling Covid-19-related complications. The designer passed away on Sunday evening at the American Hospital, near Paris, France.



Tributes have poured in for the designer, who made his debut in 1970 and over the years grew Kenzo into a globally recognized brand and fashion house.



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/bernard-arnault/#:~:text=One%20of%20the%20world's%20ultimate,biggest%20luxury%20brand%20acquisition%20ever.">Bernard Arnault</a>, LVMH chairman, said in a statement that he was “very sad to learn about his passing,” expressing sympathy for Takada’s family and friends, adding, “Kenzo Takada has, from the 1970s, infused into fashion a tone of poetic lightness and sweet freedom, which inspired many designers after him. In this fresh and spontaneous spirit, he also durably renewed the world of perfume.”



LVMH acquired Kenzo in an $80 million deal in August 1993, the year of its acquisition. Kenzo’s sales hit $144 million, according to United Press International. Takada left the group in 1999.



Jonathan Bouchet Manheim, CEO of K-3, Takada’s new lifestyle brand launched in 2020, said, “Kenzo Takada was incredibly creative; with a stroke of genius, he imagined a new artistic and colorful story combining East and West—his native Japan and his life in Paris,” he said in an emailed statement to Forbes.



Adding, “I had the chance to work alongside him for many years, always in awe, admiring his curiosity and his open-mindedness. He seemed quiet and shy at first, but he was full of humor.



“He was generous and always knew how to look after the people close to his heart. He had a zest for life . . . Kenzo Takada was the epitome of the art of living.”



<h4 class="has-text-align-center wp-block-heading">The Rise of Kenzo</h4>



Born in Himeji, Japan, in 1939, Takada studied literature before dropping out and becoming one of the first male students at Bunka Fashion College, Tokyo, according to a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/04/style/kenzo-takada-dead.html?smtyp=cur&amp;smid=tw-nytimes" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">New York Times</a>&nbsp;profile. He told the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/a5eea252-140e-11e9-a168-d45595ad076d" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Financial Times</a>&nbsp;in 2019, “I was once told that it was impossible for a Japanese man to work in the fashion industry in Paris . . . Men weren’t allowed into design schools. Being creative was not accepted in Japanese society in the 1950s. And more than anything, my parents opposed the idea of me working in fashion.”



<div class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><figure class="alignleft size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/GettyImages-1209066807-1024x682.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-48251" width="303" height="202" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/GettyImages-1209066807-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/GettyImages-1209066807-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/GettyImages-1209066807-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/GettyImages-1209066807-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/GettyImages-1209066807-2048x1364.jpg 2048w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/GettyImages-1209066807-600x399.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 303px) 100vw, 303px" /><figcaption> (Photo by Anthony Ghnassia/Getty Images For Roger Vivier)</figcaption></figure></div>



His first fashion house was impishly named “Jungle Jap” and was formed after his flat was leveled to make way for the Tokyo Olympics in 1964, the compensation from which allowed him to travel to Paris. After first selling sketches to other designers, he launched his first Paris boutique, later rebranding the fashion label as Kenzo in New York in 1976.



Takada described his own early style as floral patterns, kimonos and textiles, and drawing on the “strong presence of nature in Japanese art,” he told the&nbsp;FT.



As the house grew and grew, Kenzo launched a men’s collection in 1983, followed by a fragrance line in 1988. Kenzo sold the business to LVMH in 1993 following shifts in the industry, and the death of his partner, Xavier de Castella, in 1990, “I decided to sell the company for various reasons . . . It was becoming more commercial. Fashion was changing, the pace was changing,” he told the&nbsp;FT, staying on as designer but stepping away amicably in 1999.



<h4 class="has-text-align-center wp-block-heading">Tributes</h4>



<div class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/GettyImages-908467420-scaled-e1602146194776-1024x936.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-48252" width="412" height="376" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/GettyImages-908467420-scaled-e1602146194776-1024x936.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/GettyImages-908467420-scaled-e1602146194776-300x274.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/GettyImages-908467420-scaled-e1602146194776-768x702.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/GettyImages-908467420-scaled-e1602146194776-1536x1405.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/GettyImages-908467420-scaled-e1602146194776-600x549.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/GettyImages-908467420-scaled-e1602146194776.jpg 1707w" sizes="(max-width: 412px) 100vw, 412px" /><figcaption>Kenzo Takada and Naomi Campbell attend the &#8220;Azzedine Alaia : Je Suis Couturier&#8221; Exhibition as part of Paris Fashion Week. (Photo by Bertrand Rindoff Petroff/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure></div>



Supermodel Naomi Campbell said on Instagram, “So sad to hear of your loss today . . . will always remember your smile and humble demeanor . . . and positivity you shined on us all.” 



Billionaire <a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/francois-pinault/#190b8d374d20">François-Henri Pinault</a>, described Takada as “one of the creative spirits who contributed to making Paris the capital of fashion. His fashion resembled him: at the crossroads of cultures, creative, joyful and generous,” <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://wwd.com/fashion-news/designer-luxury/kenzo-takada-dies-at-81-of-covid-related-complications-1234621609/" target="_blank">WWD</a> reported yesterday.



<figure class="wp-block-embed-twitter aligncenter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">My condolences to the family of fashion designer Kenzo Takada, who has recently passed away from COVID-19&mdash; ye (@kanyewest) <a href="https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/1313594106942160896?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 6, 2020</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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<figure class="wp-block-embed-twitter aligncenter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">In 1971, Kenzo Takada made his ELLE debut on the cover and pages of the title thanks in part to the influence of Catherine Rousso, the powerful fashion editor-in-chief of the French magazine. His career is launched. <a href="https://t.co/sjVgFuSCp4">pic.twitter.com/sjVgFuSCp4</a>&mdash; @PAM_BOY (@pam_boy) <a href="https://twitter.com/pam_boy/status/1312789669231366149?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 4, 2020</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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Felipe Oliveira Baptista, artistic director at Kenzo, said, “It is with great sadness that I have learned the passing away of Mr. Kenzo Takada. His amazing energy, kindness and talent were contagious. His kindred spirit will live forever. Rest in peace, Master.”&nbsp;



Takada’s death falls as Paris prepares for Fashion Week 2020 amid a tightening of lockdown measures as the number of Covid cases soars again in France.



-By David Dawkins, Forbes Staff

FRANCE-JAPAN-FASHION-KENZO-PORTRAIT-BLACK AND WHITE

Kenzo Takada Dies After Covid-19 Battle–Bernard Arnault Mourns Designer’s ‘Fresh And Spontaneous Spirit’

Designer&nbsp;<a href="https://www.rebeccaminkoff.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Rebecca Minkoff</a>&nbsp;transformed the four corners of the rooftop terrace at Spring Studios into a completely furnished diorama yesterday evening, each scene reminiscent of New York City’s once vibrant nightlife.



One backdrop mimicked a late-night dress rehearsal at CBGB while another evoked after-hour vibes typical of a swanky lounge in a Tribeca hotel.



“It was all about this boho-rock sensibility that we’re known for,” said Minkoff at her New York Fashion Week presentation. “And it’s about celebrating the cultural institutions that I love that are part of New York City’s fabric.”



The still-life and still-masked models were dialed up in embellished layers and detailed accessories that screamed more badass than boho. Overall, with comforting animal prints, plaid and houndstooth for day, and glitzy sequins and leather for night, her Fall 2020 ready-to-wear collection stayed true to her signature aesthetic.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-gallery columns-1 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-3 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex"><ul class="blocks-gallery-grid"><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><figure><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="683" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GettyImages-1272713112-1024x683.jpg" alt="" data-id="47764" data-full-url="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GettyImages-1272713112-scaled.jpg" data-link="https://www.forbesafrica.com/?attachment_id=47764" class="wp-image-47764" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GettyImages-1272713112-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GettyImages-1272713112-scaled-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GettyImages-1272713112-scaled-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GettyImages-1272713112-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GettyImages-1272713112-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GettyImages-1272713112-2048x1365.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="blocks-gallery-item__caption">A Model poses during the Rebecca Minkoff Spring 2021 Presentation at Spring Studios Terrace on September 15, 2020 in New York City. (Photo by Randy Brooke/WireImage)</figcaption></figure></li></ul></figure>



But she pulled out some surprises. In the sea of clutches and crossbody bags was an unsuspecting accessory.



With a long, black military coat draped over it, a model sported the new&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.rebeccaminkoff.com/products/medela-tote?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIpcafruTs6wIViIjICh3vCQ-4EAQYASABEgJ-KPD_BwE" target="_blank">Rebecca Minkoff x Medela Pump and Baby Bag</a>. A breast shield and valve peeked right above the zipper, but even if you have nursed, you likely would’ve never noticed it.&nbsp;



“I wanted to showcase the tote at Fashion Week since a breast pump tote is an essential item for any mom,” says the mother of three. “We moms need a way to keep all our pump parts organized as we’re out and about.”



With the fashion industry in flux, IMG (the event producers of NYFW) and individual designers had to forge partnerships to make fashion shows a reality this season, especially if it was a live show.



In addition to Lowe’s furniture, which provided the furniture and decor for the event, Minkoff tapped Medela as another ally.



“We’ve always admired Rebecca for her passion in supporting breast milk feeding, working parents,” says Melissa Gonzales, executive vice president of the Americas for&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.medela.us/" target="_blank">Medela</a>. “She has been a Medela mom since her first child, so the collaboration was a natural fit for both of us to develop something.”



The versatile limited-edition bag was designed to fit Medela’s personal-use breast pumps. Says Minkoff, “We’ve been working together the last three seasons and I was like, can I design something for you guys? Something that I would love to wear and when I’m done pumping it can be my diaper bag; then when I’m done with diapering it can be my gym bag. Something with multi-functionality.”&nbsp;



She highlights her favorite features: “There’s a removable pouch that you can put dirty parts in that I wish I had because I would always put them in gross Ziploc bags. And there are a ton of compartments to keep your pump parts upright so you don’t have the milk leaking out of the caps.” And there’s nothing worse than spilt milk.



<div class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="683" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GettyImages-1272710108-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-47768" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GettyImages-1272710108-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GettyImages-1272710108-scaled-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GettyImages-1272710108-scaled-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GettyImages-1272710108-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GettyImages-1272710108-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GettyImages-1272710108-2048x1365.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption>(Photo by Randy Brooke/WireImage)</figcaption></figure></div>



Minkoff acknowledges that many workers no longer have to trek into the workplace, but that doesn’t mean working moms are sitting idle. She also predicts that the massive layoffs, remote schooling and childcare crises that arose from the pandemic will spur a new movement of entrepreneurs.



“You’re going to see a boon of founders and those are going to be the moms who are so sick of what’s going on right now that they’re going to come up with solutions to make their own businesses, go to work, and homeschool their children,” says Minkoff. “So I wanted to design something that was stylish and that would work for them.&#8221; 



Minkoff has teamed up with Medela in the past but this bag marks the first time she has created a physical product for the breast pump company. In her NYFW show last fall, Minkoff featured a digital campaign starring a Medela pump and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.romper.com/p/rebecca-minkoffs-nyfw-show-paid-tribute-to-pumping-breastfeeding-moms-in-inspiring-way-18734391" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Mara Martin</a>, the Sports Illustrated model who made headlines when she walked the swimsuit runway while breastfeeding her newborn. The fact that this isn’t a first-time partnership with Medela suggests this collaboration is Minkoff’s most personal fashion statement yet.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“So much of motherhood is about taking care of other people and not focusing on yourself,” Minkoff says. “I wanted to create something specifically for moms to help them look and feel their best amidst the messy, beautiful, chaotic experience that is being someone’s mom.”



-Tanya Klich, Forbes Staff

Rebecca Minkoff – September 2020 – New York Fashion Week: The Shows

Rebecca Minkoff’s NYFW Fall 2020 Presentation Was An Ode To Manhattan And Motherhood

Katungulu Mwendwa has deconstructed fashion and has a positive, defiant and edgy take on the environmental crises compounded by the global clothing industry.



A sleek saffron kaftan over Pollock-spattered silk trousers; the obsidian fins of a night-black evening dress; a sashed, punky, persimmon hoody from the future streets of Nairobi. These are the irresistible stories in Kenyan designer Katungulu Mwendwa’s startling KATUSH fashion brand label.



The child of a psychologist and an architect, Mwendwa grew up in a nurturing creative environment that introduced her to an eclectic skillset of creative tools.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="1024" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/RED-SKIRT-1-1024x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-44952" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/RED-SKIRT-1-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/RED-SKIRT-1-scaled-300x300.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/RED-SKIRT-1-scaled-100x100.jpg 100w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/RED-SKIRT-1-scaled-600x600.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/RED-SKIRT-1-150x150.jpg 150w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/RED-SKIRT-1-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/RED-SKIRT-1-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/RED-SKIRT-1-2048x2048.jpg 2048w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/RED-SKIRT-1-80x80.jpg 80w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



“My dad used to take us to work with him,” she says. “We would actually draft a lot, as an experiment. In fashion, you have to create the pattern, the master bloc, and it requires a level of geometry to develop. With the human form, you have to remove suppression at different angles, to create volumes and shapes. So working with my dad definitely made me more confident in that. He did want me to be an architect. So now I’m like, ‘look! I’m an architect for clothing!’”



Emboldened by her triumph in the reality TV contest Catwalk Kenya in 2007, Mwendwa pursued her bachelor’s degree at the University for the Creative Arts in Rochester, United Kingdom.&nbsp;



“By the time I graduated, I had a better understanding of who and what the key players and roles were,” she says. “I was determined to come back to Kenya to create a business that I could then offer not just to the local consumer, but to a global market.”



Her second major break came with an invitation to present at Gen Art’s ‘Fresh Faces in Fashion’ show at New York Fashion Week in 2012. She arrived “by myself with two suitcases, running around New York lost and confused,” after two sleepless months of frantic sewing.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="768" height="1024" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/work-in-progress-2-by-Osborne-Macharia-768x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-44953" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/work-in-progress-2-by-Osborne-Macharia-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/work-in-progress-2-by-Osborne-Macharia-scaled-300x400.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/work-in-progress-2-by-Osborne-Macharia-scaled-600x800.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/work-in-progress-2-by-Osborne-Macharia-225x300.jpg 225w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/work-in-progress-2-by-Osborne-Macharia-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/work-in-progress-2-by-Osborne-Macharia-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/work-in-progress-2-by-Osborne-Macharia-scaled.jpg 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px" /></figure>



“It was exciting, but extremely nerve-wracking,” she says. “I remember some people saying, ‘but your stuff doesn’t really look African…’ They were waiting for something with more color, with more prints, and I had this post-apocalyptic, nomadic thing going on! And I struggled with that at the beginning – the whole concept of being told I’m not African enough – and I used to wonder what that meant. These days, I’m like, no, that’s not my battle. And now I’m designing what I like to make.”



She cites the essential impact of opportunities such as the HEVA investment fund, which supports entrepreneurship in the East African creative sector.



“I was very grateful to them,” she says, “for at least being patient and interested in those of us who would not necessarily get financial support, because we are considered such a high-risk business.” She now involves local artisanal groups, such as brass and aluminium casters, in her creative projects, and is sensitive to the challenges facing cottage industries whose traditional skills often lie outside the purview of a ruthless, churning, unpredictable industry.



“I’m curious about the evolution of culture, and practices and aesthetics relevant to our day-to-day lives,” she says (see her ‘Dinka Translation’ collection, which transfuses an ancient South Sudanese iconography into the clipped geometric lines of the boardroom or the cocktail party). “Retaining specific cultural practices, as opposed to copying and pasting, is critical in understanding how to manoeuvre through some of the challenges we face.”



She says that much more can and should be done to bring these local industries into the fold. “These artisans don’t have access to markets, and because they can be so detached from their direct consumer here in Nairobi, it becomes easier for someone to exploit them,” she says.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="1024" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/STRIPPED-SILK-1024x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-44954" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/STRIPPED-SILK-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/STRIPPED-SILK-scaled-300x300.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/STRIPPED-SILK-scaled-100x100.jpg 100w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/STRIPPED-SILK-scaled-600x600.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/STRIPPED-SILK-150x150.jpg 150w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/STRIPPED-SILK-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/STRIPPED-SILK-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/STRIPPED-SILK-2048x2048.jpg 2048w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/STRIPPED-SILK-80x80.jpg 80w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



“I’ve always felt it’s the role of designers in the region to work closely with them, and then by extension, the market will create further demand.”



The edgy Afro-futurism of her work feels like a positive, defiant repost to the environmental crises compounded by the global clothing industry, a bloated leviathan which dumps almost two hundred tonnes of mitumba (second hand clothing) into East African markets every year. The Kenyan mitumba sector is a complex, controversial beast in its own right, creating millions of jobs while simultaneously suffocating regional productivity.



“Brands like myself cannot compete with clothing that is here for free,” Mwendwa says.



“There are a few designers creating upcycled clothing, which to me is extremely admirable. But I don’t know how good it is for us as a people, because it limits our ability to compete on an equal level. It has killed our textile sector, our own industry, and therefore we aren’t even able to source locally.”



She is optimistic, but cautious, about the future; light on her feet about the direction she may pursue.



“I’m going to tell more stories. I want to better understand how to communicate with a consumer that feels the way I feel,” she says.&nbsp; “I know it’s probably a niche consumer, but I also know they exist, in different pockets of the globe. I think we’re all everyday superheroes: that person that brings you a cup of coffee in the morning, might just say hi, might just be a stranger who stopped and waited for you to cross the road. That’s what informs my collection. And I want to share that with people.”



By Alastair Hagger

Katungulu Mwendwa

The Architect In Clothing Who Wants To Tell More Stories

After months of requests, the hip-hop superstar shared financial records, revealing details about his wildly popular Yeezy sneaker empire — and his fixation on outside validation.



When last we checked in with Kanye West, the mercurial hip-hop superstar-turned-footwear magnate, I was tiptoeing through a parking lot crop circle composed of hundreds of pairs of his Yeezy sneakers. “I’m not a numbers guy,” he explained ten months ago. “To ask me to somehow translate this to numbers is to ask your grandmother exactly what the recipe of the cake was.”



There’s only one number that West cares about. A billion, as in dollars. And he cares&nbsp;a lot.



When we featured West on the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2019/07/09/kanyes-second-coming-inside-the-billion-dollar-yeezy-empire/">cover</a>&nbsp;of&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;last summer, delving into his incredible success with Yeezy, he seemed pleased at first. His world-famous wife, Kim Kardashian West, even&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/KimKardashian/status/1148660167254274048?s=20" target="_blank">tweeted</a>&nbsp;her congratulations, to the positive affirmations of 32,300 of their closest Twitter friends.But without sufficient documentation on his unusual stake, versus just his word and industry guesstimates, we didn’t call him a billionaire. And that grated on him.&nbsp;As the year wore on, he protested&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/christian-genius-billionaire-kanye-west-talks-2024-presidential-candidacy-moving-yeezy-stateside-1253358" target="_blank">publicly</a>. (“I showed them a $890 million receipt, and they still didn’t say ‘billionaire,’” he told an industry panel, about something that no one at&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;remembers.) In private, he was more biting. (A “disrespectful article,” he texted this week, that was “purposely snubbing me.”)



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="783" height="1024" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Kanye-on-forbes-783x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-44642" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Kanye-on-forbes-783x1024.jpg 783w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Kanye-on-forbes-300x392.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Kanye-on-forbes-600x784.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Kanye-on-forbes-229x300.jpg 229w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Kanye-on-forbes-768x1004.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Kanye-on-forbes.jpg 960w" sizes="(max-width: 783px) 100vw, 783px" /><figcaption>After months of requests, the hip-hop superstar shared his financial records, revealing details on his wildly popular Yeezy sneakers empire—and his own net worth. &nbsp;JAMEL TOPPIN FOR FORBES</figcaption></figure>



When our annual&nbsp;<a href="http://www.forbes.com/billionaires">billionaires list</a>&nbsp;appeared earlier this month, again with West absent—still no documentation, and now a pandemic to boot—West again reacted with hurt and venom. “You know what you’re doing,” he texted. “You’re toying with me and I’m not finna lye [sic] down and take it anymore in Jesus name.” At one point, he texted that&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;was “purposely a part of a group of media” that was trying to suppress his self-made narrative because of his race.&nbsp;That sister-in-law Kylie Jenner did make the list also clearly stuck in his craw.



Then yesterday, a breakthrough: West directed his team to provide what we feel is an authentic numeric look into Kanye, Inc.



Three things became clear from this exercise. First, it reinforces why we put him on the cover in the first place—West, in just a few years, has created a brand that’s challenging Nike’s Air Jordan for sneaker world supremacy. It’s one of the great retail stories of the century.



Second, it reinforced that West, who claims both in words and in this paperwork that he’s worth more than $3 billion, is as overly&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/randalllane/2015/09/29/inside-the-epic-fantasy-thats-driven-donald-trump-for-33-years/#225d05ca2037">boastful</a>&nbsp;as his political idol, President Donald Trump. Not a numbers guy? We agree.



Finally, and perhaps most critically to West, it does confirm, based on our estimates, that his stake in Yeezy indeed makes him a billionaire. A bit over $1 billion, actually.



In the process, we can now share more details about Yeezy than ever before revealed—as well as some insight into what drives this extremely creative, extremely enigmatic ten-digit artist.



Yeezy is a complicated asset. West owns 100% of it. But it’s functionally tied, at least for five-plus years based on the documents we saw, to Adidas, which produces, markets and distributes the shoes. There’s also a separate apparel division that we don’t believe makes money. Last year, our sources projected the shoes would finish 2019 with revenue north of $1.5 billion (Adidas would not comment then, or now)—per recent conversations and internal documents, we believe the final revenue number ended up closer to $1.3 billion.



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Our sources told us last year that West’s agreement calls for him to receive a royalty around 15% of Yeezy revenue from Adidas. Upon closer inspection, it appears some expenses are carved out of that slice, bringing his actual cut closer to 11%. At that rate, he would have received royalties of over $140 million from Yeezy sales last year.&nbsp;



West’s aggressive $3 billion self-appraisal is clearly based on the idea that the business is infinitely portable. It’s not. Taking Yeezy away from Adidas seems almost prohibitively cumbersome, if not contractually impossible. A safer way to value it: as a royalty stream, like music publishing or film residuals. Multiples, based on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2019/05/08/royalty-exchange-cardi-b-jay-z-beyonce-timberlake/#6fd9ea346364">services</a>&nbsp;like Royalty Exchange or in large private transactions, can be as low as three for something faddish like Cardi B’s “Bodak Yellow” to 17 for an evergreen asset like the Eddie Murphy film&nbsp;Trading Places.&nbsp;



A handful of experts surveyed felt West’s interest would fetch a multiple somewhere in the middle of that range, were it ever made available to outside investors. The convenience of the Adidas setup trumps publishing catalogs, where owners must actively collect payments from a complex web of sources—or outsource that labor to someone else in exchange for an administration fee. “His place in the capital stack is a preferred place to be,” says Royalty Exchange chief Matt Smith, who pegged the multiple at between 10 and 12.



Conservatively, as we typically are with such figures, a 10x multiple, applied to West’s Yeezy cut of $140 million, makes his stake worth about $1.4 billion. But that’s a private, highly illiquid $1.4 billion—our rule-of-thumb for private assets like that is to lop off at least 10%.&nbsp;That’s $1.26 billion.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/yeezy-1024x785.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-44643" width="678" height="519" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/yeezy-1024x785.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/yeezy-300x230.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/yeezy-600x460.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/yeezy-768x588.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/yeezy-1536x1177.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/yeezy.jpg 1600w" sizes="(max-width: 678px) 100vw, 678px" /></figure></div>



A handful of experts surveyed felt West’s interest would fetch a multiple somewhere in the middle of that range, were it ever made available to outside investors. The convenience of the Adidas setup trumps publishing catalogs, where owners must actively collect payments from a complex web of sources—or outsource that labor to someone else in exchange for an administration fee. “His place in the capital stack is a preferred place to be,” says Royalty Exchange chief Matt Smith, who pegged the multiple at between 10 and 12.



Conservatively, as we typically are with such figures, a 10x multiple, applied to West’s Yeezy cut of $140 million, makes his stake worth about $1.4 billion. But that’s a private, highly illiquid $1.4 billion—our rule-of-thumb for private assets like that is to lop off at least 10%.&nbsp;That’s $1.26 billion.



Customized real estate often sells for less than the money put in (buyers in that range tend to want their own features, versus Kanye’s Belgian plaster). If you want to start scraping, there’s $3,845,162 for “vehicles,” $297,050 for “livestocks.” Then there’s the matter of his music. Documents we reviewed show West’s G.O.O.D. label—and his own recorded music and publishing rights—to be worth at least $90 million.



We tend to look at self-appraisals somewhat skeptically.&nbsp;Aside from the music, half of all this presumably belongs to his wife, although she’s no slouch and that math goes two ways. Given the illiquidity of these myriad assets and the lack of independent backup, we’re giving all of this a 50% haircut, leaving about $125 million in assets outside of his Yeezy crown jewel.&nbsp;Then, there’s debt: Between mortgages, advances and other liabilities, we saw about $100 million that West is on the hook for.



All told, our current net worth estimate for Kanye West: $1.3 billion, which he’ll be pleased to note is $300 million more than little sister Kylie.



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The chip on West’s shoulder dates back to his early days growing up in Chicago, where teachers sometimes scolded him for sketching sneaker designs instead of doing his schoolwork. He later produced songs for Jay-Z but felt the elder mogul didn’t view him seriously as a solo act. Over the past decade, West instigated more than his share of narcissistic episodes, including a self-appointed nickname, tour and album,&nbsp;Yeezus, that never seemed to treat his savior complex with much irony. (Typical song: “I Am A God.”)



When viewed through that lens, his famous affinity for President Trump makes a lot of sense. (And it continues unabated—one text to&nbsp;Forbes’ chief content officer this week ended with “Trump 2020” and a raised fist emoji.) As does West’s net worth lobbying—an art practiced, with gusto, for decades, by Trump.



“It’s not a billion,” West texted us last night. “It’s $3.3 billion since no one at&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;knows how to count.”



For years,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/randalllane/2018/04/20/the-5-things-to-know-about-president-trumps-36-year-relationship-with-the-forbes-400/">Forbes&nbsp;had an informal “Trump rule”</a>—take whatever the future president insisted he was worth, divide by 3, and start honing from there. Like mentor,&nbsp;like mentee. Welcome to the ten-digit club, Kanye. You may not like our number, but you’ve joined the highest company in that regard.&nbsp;



&#8211;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/">Zack O&#8217;Malley Greenburg</a>, Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/hollywood-entertainment">Hollywood &amp; Entertainment</a>



Additional reporting by Randall Lane

Category: Fashion