The current boom in fashion and design in Africa is a relatively recent phenomenon, perhaps dating back to the early years of this century. Previously Africa has never been remarkable for its fashion or design which was never an industry as it is now. By the way, how did fashion start in Africa? According to available information, “the first forms of clothing were bark cloth, furs, skins and hides, and the rest of the body adorned with beautification marks and color pigments. Males simply wrap the bark cloth that passes between the legs over a belt. Similarly, women draped the cloth over the belt to hide the front of their bodies.”
Designing as an art form is defined as “the method of human expression that follows a system of highly developed procedures to imbue objects, performances, and experiences with significance. Like all art forms, designing has the potential to solve problems…”
Information about fashion says “Fashion is one of the most creative and fascinating fields of art and expression. It is a form of art and skill where one can use their unique imagination and skills to create new styles, trends, and outfits. Fashion is best described as the style or styles of pairing clothes in a classy and unique way.”
In Africa, fashion and design may look like writing an African novel or painting an African portrait which can be global in form but African in content. Content precedes form. There is some philosophical element in all this. What comes first, matter or spirit? form or content? Or is it the other way round? It sounds like a “the egg or hen first?” dilemma. Who comes first? How do clothes look like or how they are conceived and with what materials they are produced?
Appearance can be universal but the way the material is presented, or the concept should inevitably be African. You can import the materials from China to produce clothing with an African fashion design imbued with African spirit. The material is what gives real content to the clothes and not vice versa. You can copy forms from designers in Paris, but you have to remain fiercely African. Otherwise, you are not an African designer but a designer without identity or a designer with divided loyalty.
In the modern world what we wear reflects our identity. You can toss and turn jeans one hundred times as a possible fashion material or fabric, but it will never turn out to be African because jeans are American or Western. You can produce an African fashion with African material and give it an African expression. Africa has its ideas of how clothes should look like or what should go into creating their identity.
In Africa as elsewhere in the world, the clothing industry and fashion industry are not the same. It is important to make a distinction between the two. “Fashion design deals more with the generation of ideas whereas the clothing industry produces the garments that are generated from the design ideas.” Designing in the fashion industry consists of creating, fashioning, executing, or producing according to plan. What they call “the seven elements of design are, form, shape, line, color, texture, typography and space.”
Africa has recently become the hub or mainstay of the fashion and textile industry due to the ongoing modernization of the traditional clothes-making industry that has a long history across the continent. “The fashion and textile industry are Africa’s second-largest post-agricultural sector, with its market value worth 31 billion dollars by 2020 and increasing annually.
The fashion industry is a marketing and production model in which clothing is moved from the runaway to major retails in second.” Fashion is therefore big business in Africa which is growing at an unprecedented pace because of globalization of the fashion industry in general and the introduction of high-tech designing and production techniques in the industry.
The African fashion industry sometimes produces local ideas as input but produces them for foreign markets. The African fashion industry, like anywhere in the world, is an elite industry that produces for elite markets and fashion houses.
Writing about this trend in the fashion industry in Africa, another blogger says, “A growing middle class in Africa has money to spend on clothes and are taking an increasing interest in what they were. Africa’s wealthy elite is also growing, and the continent is one of the fastest-growing markets for luxury goods. That’s particularly the case in Nigeria, where a fashion-conscious population is enjoying a high economic growth rate, but many other countries in Africa are experiencing a rise in both wealth and interest in fashion.”
Maybe a reorientation in African and Ethiopian fashion design and production could be as another catalyst for expansion could be a timely move. Instead of focusing on the wealthy elites in Africa and across the world, the industry could cater to members of the lower classes with lower incomes so that they could enjoy the beauty and bounty inherent in African culture and arts.
The fashion industry can also take a cue from its Chinese counterparts where different standards are designed and implemented so that consumers in different income brackets can benefit from the varieties of apparel brought to the market. In this way, most people would be turned into consumers rather than being simple observers without the means of buying what their hearts are desiring.
Early beginnings in this direction can be seen in Ethiopian fashion industry as young designers are increasingly getting inspiration from the masses who are living in the rural areas as custodians of traditional Ethiopian ways of preparing their apparels. Most of the modern fashion designs we encounter in fashionable boutiques in many cities and towns. These attires are however produced with traditional dress making in mind. This is an encouraging trend in the industry because in the long run it will reach more consumers in the low-income brackets who would be brought into the market.
Focusing only on elite consumers not only narrows the potential of the market but also marginalizes potentially the most critical consumers, i.e. those living in the countryside. New and popular fashion brands should also be encouraged to flourish and have so far been languishing in the margins for lack of investment as well as fresh ideas.
The main issue in Ethiopian fashion or design nowadays mainly boils down to the question of how to transform traditional apparel into modern ones without losing their original appeal or by adding new features that emphasize their uniqueness or particularity. How to modernize Ethiopian clothing which is “typically made of bright and colorful fabrics, and many Ethiopian dresses are adorned with intricate beadworks.”
In Ethiopia, a new generation of fashion-savvy young inventors is feeding the fashion industry and parallel to this, a new brand of Ethiopia designers has emerged at the height of the economic boom that allowed consumers to enjoy their traditional clothing presented in a new and fashionable form that reflects the ever-changing global fashion world.
The art of combining traditional weaving with modern design and marrying both to the emerging design and development in textile fabrics is apparently behind Ethiopia’s presently explosive fashion industry despite the ups and downs in market demands and export opportunities. It is estimated that there are more than 60 textile factories in Ethiopia that are supplying domestic as well as foreign markets.
The design industry in particular is almost shrouded in anonymity as it is rarely enjoying media coverage or sufficient investment. The other surprising fact is that the fashion industry in Ethiopia is almost exclusively the domain of women while elsewhere young and established male fashion designers are easily available, proving to the world that fashion is not gender exclusive.
The outlook for the future is sure to be better than it is now because male fashion designers will surely be attracted to the sector as women continue to make progress and reap the benefits.
The same can be said about the African fashion or design industry. “The future of African fashion looks bright, with more and more designers’ brands and design houses making their mark on the global fashion scene. From sustainable materials to traditional techniques, the African fashion industry is embracing new trends and predictions that are shaping the future of fashion in Africa.”
In Ethiopia, the main challenge in the fashion and design industry is the need to enlarge the acceptance or popularity of apparel produced and designed by the industry. As we said above, it should not concentrate only on elite markets and elite consumers. Ordinary Ethiopians should also be allowed to get access to the newly designed traditional and quality female and male apparel that can be used not only during holidays but also in daily life. In this way, demand can increase, and the industry will expand provided that it manages to produce garments that are fit for normal days and for ordinary citizens who cannot afford high-class or expensive clothing.
BY MULUGETA GUDETA
The Ethiopian Herald June 23/2024
