THE BOMB LIFE

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4 In Claire's Life/ Featured

Claire’s Life: Africa Fashion Week LA + Discovering New Designers and the Future of African Fashion

We all know about the big names–the Riccardo Tisci’s and Olivier Rousteing’s of the world–but I find the most fulfillment from finding out who’s got next.
I’m able to do so by popping into smaller fashion weeks like Africa Fashion Week LA, which I attended last week.
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The two day event was created to showcase some of the best talent from the Continent. I thought it only fitting to wear something by a designer who was showing. How refreshing that I was able to pull sizes and have them fit me!!
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Not only were the clothes cut for women with curvier frames, but I felt the colors just popped against melanin rich skin. In short, the garments were made for me. What a wonderful feeling.
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Short tangent: I wear a good bit of European designers. It’s always a struggle to find a size 10 or 12 (sometimes brands only go up to an 8!). Then I get it and have do all sorts of maneuvering to get it to work. I’ve added fabric to leather dresses, had buttons moved, added snaps, I digress. Everything I found at Africa Fashion Week worked! Anyway, tangent over.
I discovered lots of designers I plan on patronizing, including Rahyma, Tina Summers, Koko Nanga, and Midget Giraffe (Spoiler Alert: I’m wearing a Tina Summers dress to the Soul Train Awards this weekend!):


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Rahyma
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Tina Summers
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Koko Nanga
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Midget Giraffe

See the full list on FashionBombDaily.com.
I actually gave a talk at the opening event of Africa Fashion Week LA. My message: I tried for years to ‘break into’ the fashion magazine industry the traditional way. When I got rejection after rejection, I created my own online fashion magazine because I had to. In the same vein, the people have the power to create their own movement in regards to African Fashion. Creating an Instagram page is free, you can get a website going for a couple hundred dollars, and you can erect a Shopify site for about $89 a month. The only ‘money’ you have to invest is time (hence I’m up at 1:30am writing this. I had a lot of coffee today!).
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When compiling my review of African Fashion Week LA, I was disappointed to see that some of the designers didn’t even have a website! But that will change. We need to exchange ideas, impart knowledge, and offer counsel so that designers can scale and grow.
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I’m actually going to Lagos next week to teach a master class on blogging as part of GT Bank Fashion Weekend, and am pursuing my 501c3 paperwork so we can form a charitable organization that teaches designers business basics, offers mentorship, and provides funding. It’s time for a change–and it starts with us.
Love + Light
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