When the world thinks of African fashion, they often picture dashikis, head wraps and intricate, colourful beadwork. Neglecting to recognise talented African designers who continuously create and showcase timeless luxury pieces that can compete with the best in the world. 

The story of African fashion, repeatedly narrated from an outsider’s point of view, has been told with hints of erasure, interruption and appropriation for way too long. This narrative curates African fashion in the “other” category, and deprives the fashion world of African designers who are using their traditional influences to bring something fresh to the world of luxury fashion. 

Across the continent and in the diaspora, there has been a push to retell the story of African fashion using the voice of Africans themselves. One such voice is Ghanaian researcher and author Ken Kweku Nimo, author of Africa in Fashion: Luxury, Craft and Textile Heritage. 

“With this book, it was important for me to take on the task of telling the real story of African fashion while foregrounding the issues around fashion and designers,” said Nimo.

Nimo’s own fashion journey begins in his hometown of Cape Coast, Ghana, a city that is best known for being a base for the trans-Atlantic slave trade in Ghana. He has previously written that growing up in Ghana it was impossible not to be…