What Happened in African Fashion This Week
- Hamza Olalekan Dosunmu
- Dec 27, 2025
- 2 min read
This week, the African fashion landscape highlighted leadership, collaboration, and cultural expression. Street-level retail platforms reinforced community-driven exchange, legal and policy actors advanced frameworks for cultural ownership, sustainability research initiatives surfaced urgent infrastructure gaps, and long-standing fashion weeks marked milestones that underscored regional resilience and continuity.
Clearly Invincible brings you the latest weekly African fashion recap.
Event
Street Souk Continues to Activate African Street-wear with Community-Led Fashion and Direct Exchange
Street Souk returned to Lagos as a platform centred on independent brands, street-wear, and direct-to-consumer engagement, bringing designers and shoppers into immediate exchange outside of traditional retail structures. The event positioned street-level fashion as both cultural expression and economic infrastructure, reinforcing the role of community-driven markets in supporting emerging brands, testing product demand, and sustaining local fashion ecosystems.
Collaboration
Fashion Law Africa Summit Announces African Textile Cultural Ownership Initiative (ATCO), Launching 2026
The Fashion Law Africa Summit (TFLAS) has announced the launch of the African Textile Cultural Ownership Initiative (ATCO), set to roll out in 2026. The initiative introduces a formal framework to document African textile heritage, establish legal and policy protections, and develop ethical licensing models that return value to origin communities. Positioned as a shift from extraction to consent, ATCO focuses on education, ownership, and accountability—aiming to embed long-term protection and economic empowerment for African textile cultures within global fashion systems.
Collaboration
Style House Files, Lagos Fashion Week Launches Project Irapada to Map Textile Waste in Lagos
Style House Files has launched Project Irapada, a research-led initiative documenting textile waste flows across Lagos through field data, audits, and lived insight from markets, garment workshops, and households. The project estimates that the city discards approximately 260,000 tonnes of textile waste annually, most of which goes directly to landfill, resulting in lost value and mounting environmental pressure. Supported by the Bestseller Foundation and LAWMA, Project Irapada establishes a baseline for understanding waste volumes, hotspots, and infrastructure gaps, while identifying practical, locally driven circular entry points. Framed around the concept of “return”—to use, value, and responsibility—the initiative positions research as the starting point for systemic change.
Fashion Week
Accra Fashion Week Marks 10 Years with Resilient 12th Edition and Continental Representation
Accra Fashion Week has successfully marked its 10-year milestone with its 12th edition, underscoring the platform’s durability and regional relevance. A notable highlight was the participation of Angolan designer Lusanda Couture, whose attendance came together just a week before the shows after earlier logistical setbacks. Organisers described the moment as a testament to persistence and collaboration. The anniversary edition brought together designers, sponsors, models, production teams, and guests, reinforcing Accra Fashion Week’s role as a convening force within Africa’s fashion ecosystem, with organisers confirming plans to formally acknowledge contributors who made the milestone possible.
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