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Fashion of Tuesday, 3 April 2018

Source: Kay Agbenyega

African creatives on spotlight at AFI Cape Town Fashion Week

Princess Bertha Logan-Owusu, Fashion designer Princess Bertha Logan-Owusu, Fashion designer

Ghana fashion designer Princess Bertha Logan-Owusu of Lumiere Couture presented her latest collection at the African Fashion International (AFI) Cape Town Fashion Week.

Her exquisite collection brought beautiful colours to ramp. The mixture of fabrics brought a unique sense in the traditional Ghanaian textile.

African Fashion International (AFI) Cape Town Fashion Week displayed the beauty of Africa with its line-up which consisted of designers from around the continent.

This past Fashion Week was significant, with a strong, well-curated line-up and great announcements, which include a partnership with De Beers Group.

AFI has, over the years, built a strong and diverse community of fashion lovers, writers, creators, curators and innovators across South Africa and the continent at large.

The strong pan-African line-up, of best fashion artists and entrepreneurs on the continent, is what keeps the crowds coming back to see the latest works of these talented designers, season after season.

Gavin Rajah’s show on 21 March 2018, opened the Fashion Week in style and was a great success.

On Thursday 22 March, AFI Masterclass series was held at the Ritz Hotel, which was exceptionally received by fashion design students, the crafter community, academics and the media.

The series exposed the designers to the entrepreneurial side of fashion, the sustainability of the industry and cultural appropriation, tying it beautifully with the make-up trends from MAC and hair styling from Wella.

Both brands brought international representatives.

On the 23rd and 24th of March, the exquisite creations were on display at Salt River Film Studios, showcasing of Autumn/Winter ’18 collections on the runway. This year’s Fashion Week, again, put African excellence under the international spotlight. The shows were jam-packed with designers from South Africa, Senegal, Morocco, Nigeria, DRC, Ghana and Kenya.

AFI Privé, the in-house brand which collaborated with two previous AFI Fastrack™ finalists as the design team, presented a ready-to-wear collection that was well received.

David Tlale has partnered with AFIPrivé, the collaboration is called Privé by David Tlale and it will also be available the AFI Privé store at the Mall of Africa in Johannesburg.

“I am proud to have been invited to produce this capsule collection for AFI Privé. Being a guest designer for a range of this calibre is a rare opportunity and I am enjoying every minute,” Tlale said.

During the Fashion Week, AFI also announced the four finalists for the AFI Fastrack development programme. Dani Bitzounis from Johannesburg, Sindi Mbobo from Cape Town, Cari St Quentin and Aaliya Randeree from Durban have been elected as the top four design graduates who will be mentored by top industry experts.

The chosen interns will start their internship program on the 16th of April 2018 with House of Monatic, Jockey South Africa and Lion Cloth & Ashes.

During this elevating experience the young designers will prepare for their ultimate showcase on the coveted Fashion Week runway in Joburg in August.

After showcasing at the Joburg Fashion Week, one out of the four interns will be selected to work with AFI’s in-house label, Prive. This year’s winner will get R15 000 and a trip to New York.

AFI Founder and Executive Chairman, Dr Precious Moloi Motsepe and the AFI Team would like to thank all our stakeholders and the industry at large for their contributions towards making Fashion Week a huge success.

"We look forward to working with everyone in the upcoming Fashion Week in Johannesburg later in the year," she says.

This is the full list of sponsors which came on board to make Cape Town Fashion Week a success; De Beers, Aero, Ritz Hotel, Generosity Water, Fashion One, Trace, Hyundai, MAC, Wella Professional and City of Cape Town.