STINGO is a creative collabo between 5 Kenyans who are at the forefront of contemporary creative expression (ht African Digital Art)

Styling: Kepha Maina and Sunny Dolat
Makeup/Grooming: Kangai Mwiti
Photography: Jim Chuchu
Production: Lucille Kahara

Stingo? Stingo means “style” – or at least, it did, sometime in the 80s.

Check out their photography projects so far. I’m willing to bet they’re ones to watch.

Stocktown Africa is a documentary portrait about the lively,creative and social contemporary culture blossoming in Africa’s big cities today. Stocktown Africa will bring you face to face with the new urban Africa, where fashion creators, mobile phone journalists, cultural entrepreneurs, music producers and guerilla filmmakers define what it is to be young, talented and passionate in Africas 21st century.

I’ve watched the trailer a few times already and can’t wait to see it in full. (ht @gkofiannan)

Check out their page on FB.

A little over a year ago (where does the time go?), I blogged about the Afro-inspirational fashion e-zine, Pop’Africana. Remember the “all black issue” of Vogue Italia (July 2008) that had many an afrophile in a tiz? Well, browsing through the sassy and sexy Pop’Africana blog, which is pushing boundaries of Afro-chic, it occured to me that perhaps we have been asking the wrong questions. Or looking towards the wrong places for answers. Hence the tongue in cheek title of this post. Indeed, the likes of Arise Magazine and Ladybrille have carved out a new place for the Afro-fashionistas. Oroma [Pop'Africana] has a fierce, daring style that is certainly catapulting poppy glitzy Afro glam  into it’s own unique, fresh niche.

Spring 2010 © Pop’Africana

Founded and visually directed by Oroma Elewa, the semi-annual fashion and art magazine celebrating Africa using bright pop art colours and high-end aesthetics continues its direction to stand out from the masses of generic fashion magazines. Pop’Africana prides itself on delivering a rejuvenated image of Africa that is graphically creative and authentic. Featuring beautiful visuals and well-resourced content, the magazine is a refreshing substitute by focusing on the celebration of certain ideals and playing on art influences.

More

I bet you’ll remember the name Oroma Elewa. Me thinks she is here to make a mark.

Without much further ado, here is what has recently caught my attention in the afro-culture sphere.

• Magazines

Ugandan fashion designer Sylvia Owori’s African Woman

© africanwomanmagazine.net

The aim of the magazine is to inform, educate and entertain its readers, and in so doing present material that is relevant to the social, aesthetic, economic and cultural context of East Africa.

“I always dreamt of giving the African woman a stronger voice.” – Sylvia Owori

The month of May saw African Woman’s first Kenyan edition. The Ugandan edition is available in Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania and Sudan.

This Day’s Arise Magazine

© arisemagazine.net

Now in it’s 3^rd issue and counting.

Arise is the first global magazine dedicated to achievements in African fashion, music, culture and polity.

Check out the link for subsequent issues and eye-catching images.

• Fashion

The show in Johannesburg [June 2009] was a huge success with a plethora of designers. See Fashion Africa blog for slideshows.

Thula Sindi

If Fashion for Peace 2009 was the litmus test, it may very well be that the Festival of African Fashion and Arts (FAFA) is well on it’s way to establishing Nairobi as a centre for all things creative on the continent, as intended by its organisers.
A diverse collection of fabrics and style was on display with collections by a talented array of African designers, namely:
ARAPAPA – Uganda
BETTY VANETTI – Kenya
TIFFANY AMBER – Nigeria
JOHN KAVEKE – Kenya
KIKOROMEO- Kenya
KOFI ANSAH – Ghana
KOOROO – Kenya
MAME FAGUEYE BA – Senegal
MONICA KANARI – Kenya
PATRICIA MBELA – Kenya
THULA SINDI – South Africa

Accessories: LE COLLANE DI BETTA and DOREEN MASHIKA

Despite the dominance of Kenyan designers, which hopefully will dissipate as FAFA attracts more African designers, their individual unique styles and sources of inspiration did not give it away.

Kikoromeo

TV channel K24 carried interviews of FAFA board members Ann McCreath (of Kikoromeo fame) and Patricia Amira, as well as designers John Kaveke, Thula Sindi and Kofi Ansah in the lead up to le grand event.

I was impressed by Kaveke’s drive to promote the Kenyan fashion industry and Thula Sindi’s rationale behind his designs, demonstrating that fashion is not all about glitz & glamour but environmental and social consciousness in terms of his detestation of mindless buying+discarding of clothes and fair-trade, respectively. I am certainly an unabashed fan of Sindi due the fact that he used dream catchers (of Native American heritage) to accessorise his collection.

Music at FAFA was by Iddi Achieng, Sauti Sol, the enchanting sounds of Carlou D and Afro Project. Curtain raiser performance was by an all female choir whose name I didn’t catch, but whose kitenge outfits rocked
Seeing as I haven’t got round to it yet, more un-edited and un-photoshoped images from FAFA 2009 are coming soon to my Flickr page. At this rate, I may choose to upload them when the submarine fibre optic cable bringing much coveted broadband is in action.

The Festival for African Fashion and Arts (FAFA) was born out of a tragedy; the post-election blood spillage that took a grip on Kenya in December 2007 / January 2008. Despite this, FAFA takes a positive approach to building the future, whilst honouring the need to heal the wounds of the past which continue to haunt the nation.

As the name suggests, FAFA is not limited to Kenyan borders, and seeks to use fashion and the arts as a tool to build bridges between people and bring awareness to fair trade and support for talented African designers to get their creations in global markets.

Given its success last year, Fashion for Peace 2009 is set to take place on 25 April 2009 in Nairobi National Park.

FAFA aims to change perceptions of other communities one mind at a time by exploring and bridging cultures through fashion, art and music.

FAFA’s founding principles:

• There is unity in diversity
• Positive change comes when we stop focusing on the negative and encourage the inspiring and the positive
• Africa deserves to have a light shone on the talent and creative energy which exists on the continent

Designer Pathe’O from Côte d’Ivoire in foreground at Fashion for Peace 2008, Nairobi ÓFAFA  

The fashion show will be supported by other creative events such as musical performances as well as a Designer Master classes which will provide an exchange forum to look at innovative ways of developing African fashion and having it further penetrate worldwide markets.

Funds raised support the Alternatives to Violence Project, building non-violence skills and helping people process recent events in affected communities around Kenya.

Designer Master Class starts on Thursday 23rd April, 6.30pm at the Goethe Institute, Nairobi. Panelists include Kofi Ansah (Ghanaian designer, selling haute couture worldwide), Joan Karanja (CEO COFTA – African fair trade association) and Muchiri Wahome (MD Deacons, retailer of Woolworths, Truworths, Mr Price).

Topic: “Make Trade Fair” in relation to the fashion industry.

Source: FAFA website

A campaign about individual expression, contemporary style and cultural heritage. The goal of this campaign is to celebrate the beauty of Africa through fashion and to promote the glamour and beauty of contemporary African fashion into the social scenes. This campaign gives us an opportunity to take pride in our heritage and be proud of the connection we have with Africa.

The campaign features a number of on-the-up African designers, whose origin is dotted over the continent (mainly West Africa), and notably located in the Diaspora, namely:

Imane Ayissi – Cameroon
Estella Couture – Nigeria
Studio D-Maxsi – Ghana
Akouavi Fashions – Togo
Bothdoll Fashions – Ethiopia / Sudan
Kirette Couture – Cameroon
Cote Minou – Cameroon
Biribelle – Liberia
Knaf Couture – Ghana
La Lesso – Kenya
Anyiams – Nigeria
Modahnik – DR Congo

More from African Vibes on the participating designers and a chance to rate their work.

For more information on the launch in Bethesda, MD:

Email: iwearafrican@africanvibes.com
Phone: 301-648-7404
Coming Soon: www.iwearafrican.com
And of course, they have a Facebook Group

Wafrica Kimono (hat tip Kamau) represents the marriage of cultural icons from Japan and Africa, the creation of Tokyo-based Cameroonian Serge Mouangue through merging the Japanese kimono and quintessential African cotton, colourful, patterned fabric. This seemingly effortless physical expression of Japanese and African culture attests to a far-reaching similarity into the characteristics of the people of two distant lands – ‘modern’ and in step with the global stage, whilst simultaneously harbouring ancestral customs, traditions and knowledge.

Mouangue does not accept the lazy, superficial interpretation of his work as ‘fusion’, but challenges the observer to see something more profound in creating kimonos with a fabric whose texture, bold colours and geometric patterns are foreign to its subdued traditional fabric, whose stiff, multiple layers do not accentuate the female form. A unique creation in its own right that embodies neither Japan nor Africa and at once both Japan and Africa, through the transformation of its iconic cultural symbols into a paradox that is a new singular yet plural expression.

I do not want the end result to belong to Africa, nor should it belong to Japan. It is not a fusion…I want it to be something else. It should transcend the boundaries of both cultures. It is a third aesthetic….The connection between two different worlds such as Africa and Japan may be hidden. There may be a sea that seems to separate the two places. But we are all connected. There is earth under the sea that links us all, but we can’t always see it. This is a project that tries to show that connection.

More on Wafrica Kimono.

© Tandy Sean Arnold & Juliette McCawley

Habesha, is the African- and Chinese-inspired collection of Shanghai-based Sheila Constance Sidney, which depicts Chinese designs made with African fabric, including the ubiquitous, instantly recognisable, timeless beauty of a stiff high collar with ornate concentric, swirly fastenings that form a subtle ‘S’ as they flatteringly drape across the top quadrant of the upper torso. Through her creations, Sidney mirrors her own multicultural heritage (Guyana & Haiti) and influences (living in China), labelling it with what I initially found to be a surprising choice of an Amharic name, by drawing parallels between Ethiopia, the only African country not to sucumb to European colonisation and the country of her parents’ birth, Haiti, the first black republic of African slaves.

More on Habesha.

© exoticindianart.com

Batik sarees (saris) have been made for about 3,000 years and this ancient art form is said to have been introduced to Indonesia from India. Given the journey that batik took to Africa via Holland, as I have previously talked about, it seems rather appropriate to bring African fabric (Dutch Wax) back to the source, to India. I’m actually quite surprised that this glaringly obvious and easily achievable Afro-Indian fashion hasn’t picked up on the African continent, particularly in East Africa and the islands of Mauritius and Madagascar given the significant population and generations of African-Indians. Aha, a fashion trend yet to hit Nairobi. Remember, you heard it here first.

, the Africana global book of style, is a bi-annual fashion.art.style magazine that recently had its online debut (hat tip Afripop!).

Pop’Africana is a collaborative effort which aims to re-introduce and re-define all aspects of “Art Africano” . Not only will the magazine aim to re-educate the globe on African ideas of style and individualism it also aims to serve as a robust, visual guide for understanding the “Africano pshyce” from an all inclusive perspective. Pop’Africana sets the standard for iconic style and individualism

The most creatively accurate and engaging review-part tribute I’ve come across so far is by Kitty, and rather than try to come up with a wittier one, I will take the easier route and plagiarise paraphrase:

Part National Geographic, glossy art-zine & soft porn periodical

What I love about this e-zine is that it is about celebrating the très, très chic style in and of Africa and Africans, both in the diaspora and the continent. Find out more about this visually stimulating, creatively uplifting zine – a behind the scenes journey as it were – from Pop’Africana founder, editor and photographer, Oroma’s blog.

[the] next issue is going to be amazing because we get to travel to collect content. if we are in the business of Africa then we must travel to her isn’t that so?

Also, Pop’Africana TV is coming soon, so keep your eyes peeled for it and more importantly show your support and subscribe to the zine.

If you are in the Chicago area, do check out this up and coming designer label, by Afropolitan in the true sense of the word, Kahindo Mateene. For the sharp ones, you’ll  already have spotted the anagram from her name and first letter of her surname, which incorporates the rather clever use of the Italian word for fashion, moda.  

Modahnik combines contemporary African fashion with fair-trade. So not only would you look good, but also feel good for knowing your trendy clothes were ethically sourced. More about the designer and her journey to create Modahnik here. Enquiries to kmate{at}hotmail{dot}com or tel 773-865-6837.