Our 2017 In Review

2018 is on the horizon, with less than a month to go and we at Fa254 are more than excited for the new year that’s certain to be bigger and more prominent, which is quite promising considering the successful year we have had in 2017. There’s a good reason why Fa254 works by wise words of the African proverb “if you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together,’’ and this showed exactly why as we teamed up with various brands, designers and institutions like Goethe Institute, African Sourcing & Fashion Week and British Council among many others, and walked together with far-reaching results within the many sectors of the African fashion business.  This year, we positioned our business to capture new brands, discover, train and promote new design talents and see a significant growth of African fashion brands’ position on the global scale. We did this by expanding our reach to the rising fashion capitals of Africa as such investing in key geographical areas, strengthening our brand portfolio, as well as augmenting our digital and social media communications. See below a recap of this year’s best projects including the launching of our book ‘Mtindo’, our investment in young African designers and many more.

Walk For Business

Fashion Africa 254 collaborated with Africa Sourcing and Fashion Week (ASFW) to promote Walk for Business (WFB), a platform which brings professional fashion designers together with international buyers as an initiative to provide a sustainable offering by African fashion designers to the global fashion industry. Ensuring business growth, Walk for Business supported African Fashion designers and their business ventures by providing assistance with the development of systems for billing, shipping, manufacturing, and production timelines. The project also assisted with preparing marketing campaigns for successful promotion of brands, as well as providing support to designers so that they are able to recognize which retailers to target in this way ensuring they match their brand aesthetic with the concept of the stores they present to.

Creative Futures

For Creative Futures, a two-year programme aimed at strengthening and growing the creative sectors in Ethiopia, Fa254 teamed up with The British Council, Goethe-Institute and iceaddis to develop the competition as a unique opportunity for talented Ethiopian fashion designers to showcase their creations to an international audience of consumers and investors. Creative futures looked for the best fashion designers in Apparel and Accessories and present through the whole process was an international jury dedicated to selecting one winner set to travel to Europe and showcase his/her collection to the international market. The collection was produced in Ethiopia under the supervision of a team of experts from Fashion Africa 254.

Mtindo Book

Brimming with captivating images shot by Italian Photographer Daniele Tamagni, Mtindo book showcases the young generation of creatives in Nairobi who are on a mission to ‘rebrand Africa’s future’. Edited by Fashion Africa 254 founder Waridi Schrobsdorff in collaboration with Skira International Publishing Group, Mtindo features a collection of over 200 colour pictures, showing the vibrancy of a new young generation that is representing the continent today. It also boasts a collection of texts by Reiner Opoku, Co-Founder of Parley for the Oceans, Melissa Drier, German Correspondent for Women’s Wear Daily, and Sara Maino, Deputy Editor in Chief Vogue Italia and Head of Vogue Talents. The book can be purchased from Amazon by clicking here.

In 2017, we discovered, we trained and we promoted some of Africa’s best design talents and in 2018 we will continue to expand our geographical reach as we continue working on growing the continent’s fashion industry globally.  Indeed, the coming year will certainly be more exciting as we will reveal our new projects, collaborations and workshops that we will use to shape the future of African fashion. Make sure you join us in 2018 for another year of success and ingenuity, sign up for our newsletter and stay in the loop. As for designers and brands, make sure you sign up for our services before 2017 ends as we have a big surprise for you next year. See you in 2018!