To celebrate Africa Fashion, an ongoing exhibition at London's Victoria and Albert Museum, AMAKA spotlights ten African female-led brands shaking the global fashion scene with innovative designs that take inspiration from their heritage and the world around them. 

For the first time since its opening by Queen Victoria in 1857, the world's largest museum of art and design is solely showcasing Africa's fashion. The Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum in London has opened its doors to 45 designers from 25 African countries in its landmark Africa Fashion exhibition. Running until April 2023, the exhibition seeks to celebrate the “creativity, ingenuity and unstoppable global impact of contemporary” fashion from the continent.

“Africa fashion, rather than African fashion,” asserts Dr Christine Checinska, V&A's senior curator of African and African Diaspora Fashion, who masterminded the exhibition. “I like the ambiguity of it. I like the open-endedness of Africa fashion. Because I always felt that to call it African fashion, that phrase is too small to keep all that complexity and nuance alive. I think it's really important to say that African fashions are undefinable.”

 This exhibition comes at a time when African designers have inched their way to global spotlight with their head-turning, jaw-dropping styles. Brands from the continent have been shaking the fashion world with bold experimentations while maintaining a balance with their cultural roots. African women have not been left behind in this fashion revolution. Female designers have transcended barriers with their unparalleled collections, and even at the V&A exhibition, their stunning designs are on display.

From Nigeria, Lisa Folawiyo's traditional ensemble is decorated with thousands of glittering beads shimmering on the displays. Nkwo Onwuka showcases a blue and white ensemble of dakala cloth made from recycled denim with the traditional West African gele head wrap. Bubu Ogisi's IAMISIGO designs reimagine styles from ancient west African masquerade costumes by different cultural groups. Kenya’s Ami Doshi Shah is in the Adornment section with a brass, sisal and borax salt neckpiece. From Ghana, Christie Brown, founded by Aisha Ayensu, has featured two of her pieces—one from the collection Conscience and another from the She is King collection.  

From Senegal to Angola, we highlight ten more African female-led fashion brands putting the continent on the global map through fashion. 

Loza Maléombho (Ivory Coast)

The award-winning Ivory Coast-based designer is headlining the V&A display with a 3-piece cut jacket with a fitted silhouette and shorts that branch out into trousers. The gold mask buckles linking the shorts and the trouser extension have become Maléombho’s trademark. The designer, who launched her self-titled womenswear brand in 2009, is one of the most successful Ivorian designers to emerge from the continent. 

While many international celebrities have worn her garments, the most notable moment for her was in 2020 when Beyoncé appeared in her custom shoulder-padded blazer in the Black Is King film- causing her website to crash and her sales to spike 300%. Maléombho, who won Emerging Designer of The Year at ARISE Magazine Fashion Week, collaborates with shoemakers, weavers and other local artisans from Ivory Coast to design her collections which are sold worldwide. 

Sindiso Khumalo (South Africa) 

A 2020 winner of the prestigious LVMH prize, Sindiso Khumalo is exhibiting her ‘Zulu Princess’ toile at the V&A. The garment depicts her mother wearing a traditional Zulu headdress on Khumalo’s wedding day. The Cape Town-based designer, who uses fashion as a tool for activism and politics, launched her brand in 2014. Khumalo has small workshops in South Africa and Burkina Faso that produce unique handwoven and hand-embroidered textiles from hemp, recycled and organic cotton and upcycled waste materials. 

Recognising her sustainability efforts, she scooped the Independent Designer of the Year award at the Green Carpet Fashion, dubbed the Oscars of Fashion. Khumalo presented her Spring/Summer 21 collection at Milan Fashion Week and recently partnered with Vans footwear. Her clothing is sold at the world's leading luxury retailer, Net-a-Porter.

Selly Raby Kane (Senegal)

At the Afrotopia section of the V&A exhibition, Kane’s piece is a show-stopper with its Afrofuturistic boldly coloured dress embossed with bulging eyes. Kane, whose eponymous brand was launched in 2012, works on designs that bridge the gap between fashion, technology, and futuristic visualisations. The Dakar-based designer juxtaposes traditional West African textiles with futuristic elements from horror and sci-fi movies to develop fantastical garments. 

In 2017, she became the first African designer to be commissioned by the Swedish furniture brand IKEA to work on their historic range of creations. Kane has lent her garments to Beyonce and exhibited her pieces at MoMA PS1, the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (Denmark), Vitra Design Museum, and Design Indaba. In 2019, Time magazine featured her in the Next Generation Leaders series. 

Tongoro (Senegal)

Founded by Sarah Diouf in 2016, the brand’s signature design contrasting black-and-white geometric motifs with billowing silhouettes is also on display at the V&A exhibition. Tongoro, translates as 'star' in Songo, one of the Central African Republic’s (CAR) national language, where Sarah’s mother is from, is a 100 percent made-in-Africa label established in Dakar. The line has attracted interest from Beyonce, who has worn Tongoro more than five times, Naomi Campbell, Alicia Keys, Iman and Burna Boy. 

In 2020, Tongoro was listed among Fast Company's 10 Most Innovative Companies in Africa. She partnered with Industrie Africa, the leading luxury online platform in Africa, to create a limited edition capsule collection. The brand's biggest market is the US, with sizeable orders from South Africa, Nigeria, and Ghana. They can also be found at the world’s leading retailer, Net-a-Porter. 

Hanifa (DRC)

Founded by the Congolese fashion designer Anifa Mvuemba in 2012, Hanifa primarily caters to Black women, particularly curvier Black women who often are underrepresented in fashion. During the peak of the COVID pandemic in 2020, to sustain her business and spread awareness on the issues of mineral site conditions in central Africa, she premiered the Pink Label Congo collection via a virtual 3D fashion show that became an online viral sensation. 

Mvuemba was awarded a CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund grant for emerging designers in 2021, and in November of the same year, debuted her first-ever in-person runway show ‘Dream’ at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C. Her designs have been worn by Beyoncé, Lizzo, Tracee Ellis Ross, Gabrielle Union, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Zendaya, who sported her pleated Kinshasa mini on the cover of InStyle magazine. 

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Maki Oh (Nigeria)

A born and bred Lagosian, Amaka Osakwe founded Maki Oh in 2010 and, two years later, made her debut at the New York Fashion Week. The label's breakthrough came in 2013 when Michelle Obama wore its design during a trip to Johannesburg and invited Osakwe to join her at an event at the White House. Other star-studded brand clients include Rihanna, Lupita Nyong’o, Solange, and Issa Rae. 

With an impressive following in the U.K. and U.S., her brand is among the first Nigerian brands to attain global recognition. The New York Times even praised her collection for utilising skill sets that were being forgotten. The brand has been exhibited in museums such as FIT and Vitra, and featured in major publications, including Vogue, Elle, the New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal.

Studio 189 (Ghana)

Founded in 2013 by Ghanaian designer, Abrima Erwiah and her friend Rosario Dawson, Studio 189 focuses on creating pieces that harness traditional African textiles with fashion-forward silhouettes. Every piece is made in Accra, where with the help of local artisans, they design using traditional techniques, including natural plant-based dye indigo, hand-batik, and kente weaving. 

Studio 189 won the prestigious CFDA Lexus Fashion Award in 2020 for its commitment to producing sustainable fashion. The brand, which has a presence at New York Fashion Week, has collaborated with other labels ranging from Fendi, Nike, and Opening Ceremony. With their pieces being sold at luxury retailers like Neiman Marcus, they have helped shift how the fashion industry thinks about luxury and Africa. Studio 189 also recently collaborated with Amsterdam-based fashion brand Scotch & Soda to launch the 100 limited-edition raffias "Born to Love" bags. 

Kai Collective (Nigeria/U.K.)

Fisayo Longe launched Kai Collective in 2016, but it wasn't until 2020 that her brand found prominence through her signature Gaia, a sheer colourful print dress. The brand saw massive success with the dress, growing over 500 percent in sales. The Gaia dress has been spotted on Saweetie, Michaela Coel, Tiwa Savage, and Jackie Aina. Longe has been featured on the cover of ELLE and in magazines including Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Stears Business, and Forbes. 

 In 2020, Beyonce included Kai Collective in her directory of Black-owned businesses to support, and a year later, Longe was listed in Forbes 30 Under 30 Art & Culture honouree class. She has worked with brands like Nike, Google, Lancome, and Facebook. Most of her customers are Black women living in the U.S., U.K., Australia, and Nigeria.

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Akinyi Odongo Kenya (Kenya)

Launched in 2015, Akinyi Odongo Kenya is a high-end eponymous Kenyan fashion brand that’s a favourite among African First ladies, politicians, and high corporate flyers. The line also boasts a sizeable foreign-based client base in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Europe and USA. Odongo, who has been awarded the prestigious ELNET award for ethical business leadership, received the presidential Order of Grand Warrior award in July 2022 in recognition of outstanding service rendered to her home country. 

Committed to reviving disappearing traditional fabric techniques, she sources fabrics from over 2,000 weavers in Kenya, Ethiopia and Burkina Faso. Odongo also mentors designers from nine countries, including Ethiopia, South Africa, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania, through her Fashion Agenda Africa initiative (FAA).

Soraya da Piedade (Angola)

The renowned Angolan designer, known for her elegant and innovative designs, launched her self-titled brand in 2010. Da Piedade's work has earned her numerous awards, including Fashion Stylist of the Year Award in Brazil, Creator of the Year award in Angola in 2015/2016 and 2017/2018, the 2018 legend of African fashion in Cameroon, and most recently, the trophy for best Collection of the Year, in the fashion category at the 25th edition of Moda Luanda 2022. 

Her lines include Z's For Kids, Exxtra for Plus Size, Bantu for African prints, SP For men and Bridal. Da Piedade has presented her collections at international fashion shows in Brazil, Senegal, South Africa, Portugal, Morocco, Paris, Ghana, France, and the U.K. She was also recently honoured in Brazil for her contribution to the City as a fashion entrepreneur.