Ghana Fashion & Design Week: An impressive entry?

The Ghana Fashion & Design Week may have come and gone, but the experience will linger in our hearts for a very long time, thus, will the second edition be fun as it was to some and boredom to others, that I will be very particular about, more especially from my perspective and account of the ‘glamorous’ days (nothing sarcastically about this).

I cannot deny the fact that I met lots of extremely successful designers that grace fashion weeks all over the world, and if they decided to come to Ghana to showcase, it’s a step in the right direction.

My view on the show isn’t to bring down anyone, though I got that cheeky response from an intern (name withheld) who told me that my views will be ‘baseless’ as she coined it. Well, I will not adhere to yellow journalism or will I want to white-wash another’s effort, but you will agree with me that constructive criticisms should be welcome.

What was the Theme of the Week?

Well, I actually would want to relate to fashion from Africa or Ghana or Nigeria or Togo or South Africa or even Morocco not branded African fashion.

Someone from the audience on one of the nights whispered about what the ‘theme’ with which the designers were playing around with as they showcased what they had, but if the organizers had themed the event, then that would have given it a Ghana or Africa feeling.

Still on this, I don’t want to think that the organizers forgot to theme the event because most fashion shows are themed; for instance the Nigeria Fashion Week was themed last year with ‘Going Green’, which creates a global warming Eco-friendly fashion feeling.

About the event itself & the Local Press in view

For an event that kicked off with Press passes ‘wahala’, though an intern who was part of the organizers told me that, “the Ghanaian media guys really want us (the organizers) to come, kneel down and beg them?” She continued, “the information was all over the internet, and therefore, I expect that they should be able to read and apply”.

That was bold and factual from her part, but my question will not be devoid of the fact that you cannot sit in your Sokoto (a state in one of the West African countries) and control issues in another man’s ‘Shokoto’ (pair of trousers).

The organizers did so well in bringing so many foreign media men and women to Ghana to cover the fashion show, but where were the chunk of Ghanaian media guys who have sat up late at night to talk about the culture and beauty of Ghana?

The organizers will be applauded in a very beautiful limelight by international media but what happens back home in Ghana? For the benefit of those who may want to say, “allow that big mouth to rant”, kindly peruse through and tell me how many Ghanaian media followed up on the first Ghana Fashion & Design Week? I may be wrong somewhere, but that’s what I noticed.

Brilliant Seminars

The seminars on both days had wonderful speakers who inspired me and I am sure for those who didn’t attend, then that maybe until next year. Their insights into the fashion business were wonderful to be part of. The ugly, bitter and sweet moment and how they managed to sell their passion and idea to others will not be forgotten in a long time. Everyone had something to say, but Naana Yanky, Creative director of Cocolily label was one in a million. Her zeal on how she started has seen her thus far.

The Runway

Every designer came in with one mindset, ‘impress the audience’, but I must say that Love April (Ghana), Rebekah Opuni (UK), Kachi Designs (USA) and Sarah Duah (Germany) were ‘wow’. Whatever concept was running in their minds, they delivered according to their ability. Duaba Serwa didn’t disappoint as she closed the show for part one. Her collections were on point. She had the street, office, and dinner settings in mind and produced fashionable and wearable stuffs. Also, there were loads of designers such as Mina Evans (Ghana), Brigitte Merki (Ghana), Alali Boutique ( Nigeria), 1981 (Italy), Coccolily (Canada), Morts & More (UK), Mimi Lee London (UK/Nigeria), AFG- Trade Not Aid (UK), Orange Culture (Nigeria), Konfidence (Ghana), Maria Gonzalez (Spain), Jil Boutique (Ghana), Christie Brown (Ghana), et al, who did their own thing.

Choice of Selecting Designers

Sincerely, on the two nights, I must confess that a lame man on the street, who bumps in there would have concluded that it was a London Fashion Show in Ghana, rather than the name we all were made to believe. Almost 90 per cent of the designers and audience all flew in from outside Ghana, well that we can say opened the country to the world, but we must not be blindfolded by the fact that here in Ghana, we have loads of people who will have attended the show and also more designers from back home who would have been glad to participate.

For a fact, the organizers had their own concept in mind, perhaps they just didn’t want to involve, ‘the locales’, if I may put it that way. Some Ghana based designers who came to the show where left asking more questions than answers well deserved. Well, the show is over and hopefully next year shall be better.

Ghana Man’s Time From UK

I have always advocated that we keep to time and avoid this syndrome of delaying and causing headaches for ourselves. The issue of bad time factor at events will always linger until organizers sit up and cultivate the right habit of kicking off events at the right time. I thought since everything was brought in from outside Ghana, including most of those that attended, the DJ, two-thirds of the designers and many other things, I was of the notion that time will be taken into consideration, but the cankerworm has eaten deep into the ‘black man’, so no matter where you reside, the mentality perhaps maybe the same.

Other Observations

I observed positives and negatives as well. One will say that the positives were out of the fact that the organizers had top brands like BlackBerry and Vogue, but what shall we say of the blunders which almost left the organizers helpless at some point?

The issue of local media being sidelined, at least most of them that I know and my reason being that it was called ‘Ghana Fashion & Design Week’ and not ‘UK Fashion & Design Week’.

Another thing I noticed was that the event at a point should have been channeled to promote local upcoming designers, because in some other countries, shows like this are chance for those that are not known outside from Ghana to be part of and showcase their brands. Unless the organizers have their own explanation to this; as I earlier said, it is just constructive criticisms.

I will not want to talk about the Lighting system which at a point in time was malfunctioning, and the music for the runway, boy, the DJ was perfect at playing her choice of songs the way they seemed right to her and not the tune that could propel smooth nights; I may be too harsh on this but you cannot tell me that back here in GH, we don’t have standard DJs for fashion shows.

Also, incase no one noticed, I did noticed that the event at appoint almost lost the coordination as guests were coming in to sit right from the dressing room, this means that the main entrance were choked by pressmen who didn’t enjoy the comfort of romping with their camera.

My Final Verdict

Let’s be very objective, I must confess that the two nights did not look exciting, although I saw some nice clothes by a couple of designers. I guess when you are told BlackBerry, Vogue, Vogue, Porsche, and L’Oreal are supporting an event, you expect it to be impeccable.

Hence, if my expectations were not met, then my level of disappointment was quite high. Maybe I didn’t take note of any but there were no African companies sponsoring the show, meaning that industry players are more concerned about competing with each other instead of synergizing. Who do you blame for that, me, you or the organizers?

In a nutshell, it boils down to creativity and the mode of selecting your setup crew for events of such grandeur, bearing in mind that organizing a fashion week is not rocket science, but if the Ghana Fashion & Design Week worked as a team they would have had a more successful outcome.