You’ve probably heard about the weather at Paris Fashion Week. Still, beneath the neoclassical colonnades of the Palais Brongniart, not even the slate gray skies and lashings of rain could dampen the buoyant spirit conjured by the Paris debut of CANEX (Creative Africa Nexus) Presents Africa, a talent development and showcasing platform for the design of the continent and its diaspora. Indeed, the location itself spoke to the sincerity of the mission: The former stock exchange is something of a PFW institution, with industry heavyweights like Raf Simons and Off-White having previously chosen it as the location for their shows.
Today, though, it served as a platform for Lagos Space Programme, Thebe Magugu, and Sukeina, all of whom offered an idiosyncratic testament to the contemporary state of African fashion.
First up was Lagos Space Programme, the Nigerian label founded by Adeju Thompson in 2014—and which took home last year’s International Woolmark Prize. Titled The New Lagos Look, Thompson’s collection meditated on the unfathomably rich craft heritage and history of his homeland, its traditional dress customs, and the contemporary reality of how young Lagosians dress. “My work is all about highlighting an alternative African narrative, taking things that are traditionally very Yoruba coded, but questioning how we can make it modern,” the designer said backstage postshow.
His responses came in the form of generously proportioned, savvily rethought tailored pieces, like zippered bomber jackets in pin-striped tailoring wools, scarlet hammered silk shirts, and billowing poplin caftan shirts. The Yoruba craft of indigo dyeing was deftly invigorated in denim car coats and a cozy jersey hoodie, while a flirtiness was flecked through the collection by way of halter-neck waistcoats with open backs and flippy miniskirts with lace trim. “I’m carrying the reality of where I come from—I’m representing Lagos,” Thompson said. “When I’m out with my friends raving, that’s what they wear. I’m trying to convey spirit while also merging it with how my grandparents and parents dress.”
Parental relationships were also on the mind of Thebe Magugu, though the mood of his collection was a little more poignant. “It was quite personal,” the LVMH Prize–winning designer said. “Even if it felt quite vibrant and bold, it was actually a reaction to a recent reconciliation with my estranged father. I’m South African, but he has roots in Malawi, and that’s why there’s this sort of fusion between the two cultures.”
That manifested most directly in the visual treatments seen across the collection. Chitenge prints and a blue-green treatment seen on a silk shirt with an in-built cape—abstracted from a map of Lake Malawi—nodded to his father’s homeland, while trompe l’oeil cow prints on raincoats and silky separates paid homage to South Africa’s indigenous Nguni cattle. Elsewhere, there was a curious counterposing of archetypically masculine sartorial codes and typically feminine proportions and material choices. Thebe Magugu FC jerseys were rendered in fine intarsia knit, blown up to tea-dress size and trimmed with marabou feathers, while suiting came in pearly satin. “My [personal style] has both a very masculine and feminine energy, and that’s something I also wanted to translate into the collection,” Magugu explained.
If there was one person whom Sukeina’s collection reflected, it might be Mary, Queen of Scots, but sexed up: see the slinky black dresses with high, rufflike white collars that made up a significant share of the collection. But such associations are entirely coincidental, said designer Omar Salam. “What I was attracted to here was not working with color at all,” he said, so around half of the collection was made up of pieces that demonstrated his nuanced understanding of black’s full spectrum.
Color did, however, come into play through evening-only dresses in lurid flashes of scarlet—architectural constructions in generous folds of heavy crepe and strapless cocktail numbers that swished with braided fringe. “Red is more of a mood than a color,” said Salam. “We wanted to provoke—to create pieces that people will take the time to look at and see that they aren’t just dresses, they’re moments.”
That could be said of each of the collections seen here, but perhaps the greatest “moment” was the staging of the show itself. It’s by now no secret that “African fashion” is such a rich, eclectic category that maintaining it as a catchall for an entire continent’s creative output is borderline insulting. Still, the fact remains that, despite Africa’s prolific impact on “architecture, dance, pop music, jazz,” Salam listed, “for some reason, fashion doesn’t seem to allow Africa to express itself in a distinctly African tonality.” By taking up space on the industry’s most valued platform, CANEX Presents Africa is doing important work to make that possible. “It’s ushering in an era where Africans can create not just for Africans, but for the world,” said Salam.
