| Young Kenyan fashion designer steps out in style
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Written by Abyssinia Lati , Business Daily
Friday, 24 July 2009 18:47 |
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Fashion
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 Asked when she launched the fashion house whose label made a mark at a recent continental fete, Liz Ogumbo of Imani House of Fashion usually tells a little white lie.
She is afraid people will not believe that the business is only three years old.
It typically takes years for a designer to hone their skills and build their brands. It took John Galliano, the creative director of Christian Dior, more than five years to finally show his designs at the Paris fashion week after graduating from fashion school in the late 1980s.
It’s no mean feat then, that the Imani fashion house has managed to build a label that participated successfully in the Arise Magazine African fashion week held in Johannesburg, South Africa last month.
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Fashion
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 A new trade war is unrolling across Africa: a battle between Chinese textile-makers and a colonial-era company from The Netherlands, original maker of the eye-catching “Dutch Wax” fabrics often known as “Africa Wax.”
Little known at home or anywhere else in Europe, the house of Vlisco is one of Africa’s most-known brands, suppliers since 1846 of the bright cloths stamped with extravagant designs that are a hallmark of the continent.
But China’s deepening foray into Africa has upset the makers of “Guaranteed Dutch Wax,” who say workaholic Chinese are copying their designs as soon as they hit ports to dump cheaper low-quality lookalikes on African marketplaces.
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| Bold fashion defies slowdown in South Africa
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Written by China Daily
Friday, 10 April 2009 19:18 |
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Fashion
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 Designers defied the global economic crisis at this season's South African fashion week by showing off vibrant outfits with hints of tradition inspired by a golden era of African civilisation.
Stoned Cherrie, South Africa's best-known black design label, closed fashion week in Johannesburg with bold colors and fabrics reminiscent of royalty, influenced by the ancient Mapungubwe civilisation from southern Africa.
"Stoned Cherrie is about abundance," Nkhensani Nkosi told Reuters after the show, which featured models bedecked in brightly colored dresses covered with frills, mixing fabrics such as mesh, lycra and a delicate silky cotton.
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Ghana’s most respected and largest modeling agency, Exopa Model Agency International has officially launched this year’s “Ghana Fashion Weekend 2009”.