Up-Fuse is a social enterprise founded in 2015 by Yara Yassin, Rania Rafie and Lama El Khawanky. The organisation operates from Cairo's Garbage City, a slum settlement on the capital's outskirts,...
Q&A
Q&A with founders of new African luxury fashion rental platform R’Frique
Luxury redefined: R’Frique is making high-end African fashion more accessible and sustainable—one rental at a time. In this Q&A, founders Ceejay Ndlovu and Lebi Barfour-Osei share how their platform champions slow fashion, celebrates African design, and challenges the norms of ownership.
Q&A: Kenyan designer Jamie Kimani uses fashion to foster pride and self-expression
Jamie Kimani is the founder and creative director of Sevaria, a Nairobi-based brand that includes upcycled and deadstock materials to produce genderfluid pieces. His collections feature...
Q&A: Shelley Mokoena of Connade redefines minimalism
Shelley Mokoena is the artist, designer and creative director behind Connade, the experimental luxury womenswear brand based in Johannesburg. She describes her work as meeting at the intersection of...
Q&A: Hamaji is a love letter to handcraft and heritage
Having grown up in Nairobi with a conservationist father and a botanist mother, Louise Sommerlatte has always had an appreciation for the beauty of the natural world. She founded her brand Hamaji...
Q&A: Abasiekeme Ukanireh of Éki Kéré reimagines sustainable fashion with raffia
Meet Abasiekeme Ukanireh, founder and creative director of Éki Kéré. The Nigerian brand was founded in 2020 to challenge, transform and redefine fashion stereotypes while embracing African heritage...
Q&A: Stephanie Bentum’s approach to textile making gives her star quality
Stephanie Bentum is a textile maker whose work has been travelling internationally through her collaborations with renowned South African designers, Lukhanyo Mdingi and MMUSOMAXWELL. Stephanie’s...
Q&A: House of AKACHI designer Nneji Akunne says fashion can drive sustainable development
At House of Akachi, sustainability is a way of life. Founder Nneji Akunne's passion and determination for sustainable development is as clear as it is for fashion. She sees fashion as a pathway...
Q&A: Gugu Peteni of GUGUBYGUGU says African design is innovative and global
GUGUBYGUGU, a South African fashion brand based in Gqeberha, is unapologetic, bold, genderless, and experimental. “Fashion to me means a host of things – it’s about identity, it’s feeling, it’s an...
Q&A: Designer Thando Ntuli reflects on the latest MUNKUS collection
MUNKUS was founded, in 2019, by Thando Ntuli. Born in Soweto, she was called “Munkus” by her family, a name that she now attaches to a sense of home. As the creative director and owner of the brand,...
Q&A: Designer Awa Meité pays homage to Mali’s design traditions
Awa Meité is a recognised multi-talented fashion and textile designer, filmmaker, stylist, and painter. Based in Mali’s capital city Bamako, Awa’s label spotlights local artisans who are responsible...
Q&A: Jesmine Davids shares the making of Rebirth SA’s AW23 collection
Rebirth SA is a Johannesburg-based clothing brand established by founder and creative director Jesmine Davids, in 2018. “The brand is inspired by the streets for the streets practicing sustainable...
Q&A: Tsakani Mashaba says Hamethop resists the fashion establishment
Hamethop's embodies diverse realities through fashion and design, allowing those who engage with it to reflect on how they can define themselves. This is according to the Hamethop website. Based in...
Q&A: Sekayi Mwila Fundafunda crafts stories about “ourselves, about Africa”
Based in Lusaka, Zambia, Sekayi Mwila Fundafunda works as a sustainable fashion and innovation management professional. She is also the co-founder and creative director of MaFashio Co. a collective...
Q&A: Samantha Rayment showcases the work of local artisans through handcrafted rope bags
KELP by Ray is a Cape Town-based sustainable fashion brand that sells a range of high-quality cotton rope bags. Each bag is individually handcrafted by local artisans in the Mother City from locally...