Dakar-Fashion Week: Africa's Fashion Glory From Senegal
Dakar-fashion week is one of Africa’s fashion events to have evolved in recent times with its critical role towards the promotion of African fashion glory on the global stage. The event is a dais for African designers to showcase their fashion work and connect with fashion industry professionals.
The Dakar-fashion week displays the abundant cultural values and diversity of the African continent by acting as a flash point of cultures and creativity.
Dakar-Fashion Week In History
The fashion week event was founded by Adama Amanda Ndiaye (Adama Paris) in the year 2002 with the goal of promoting African fashion and designers, celebrating African culture, creativity, and promoting inclusiveness. She also created the first black African week show in France.
Dakar-Fashion Week And Pollination Of Creativity
The event serves as a meeting point for top designers and emerging talents to cross breed ideas, creativity, and mentorship. Aside from celebrating Africa’s unique and diverse cultural heritage, the event equally exposes for all to appreciate the potential of African fashion to compete and contribute to the world fashion industry through collection of fashion ideas, run way shows and fashion career building.
Dakar-Fashion Week 20 Years Anniversary
Usually a 3 day event, the dakar fashion week celebrated her 20 years of championing Africa’s dynamic fashion history, creativity and rich cultural heritage between 2nd to 4th December, 2022. The anniversary was held in Gorée, the center of cultural and ethnic mixing, according to the organizers the event was intended to make everyone live a unique experience. with its captivating spirit, participants would be immersed in fervor of beautiful Dakar and artistic tourist adventure.
More also, it featured runway shows, and platforms for top designers and emerging talents to show what they had on their sleeves while also exploring panel discussions on sustainability, ethical fashion, and the role of technology in the fashion industry.
The Baobab Tree Miracle, Covid-19, And 20 Year Old Najeebah
Even the ravage of COVID-19 could not stop the 2019 edition of the fashion week rather the organizers choosed to gather under the towering baobab tree outside the Senegal’s capital to celebrate the event a feat the organizers said depicts sustainability.
The organizers choose inclusiveness and sustainability as the team to remind participants of the need to strengthen and preserve the African heritage by celebrating and knitting together fashion talents and ideas amidst amidst the many towering giants and dream spoilers milking the continent, and BOOM! the miraculous happened when a 20 years old NAJEEBAH Samuel born with a cerebral palsy took the run way at the event and his skill was meet with cheering applause and he said “I want to prove to other disabled kids that you are not your disability – you are just you, you have to come out and show people who you are”.
Africa is a home for many talents, dreams and ambitions but nurturing them to reality often hits the brick wall, it requires the gentle but impulsive breez of courage, determination and creativity embedded in events like the dakar-fashion week. Through this event, many local fashion industries received the push needed to thrive in the fashion career and emerging talents presented with opportunities to sustain their fashion dream.
