ARISE African Fashion Collective of New York Fashion Week
by Jake Bright and Keri Ingvarsson
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| ARISE magazine sponsored the third African Collective of Fall 2010 New York Fashion Week. The evening runway show featured designers, models, and mode from across the continent. ARISE, a relatively new glossy monthly of African style, culture, and politics, was founded by prominent West Africa publisher Nduka Obaigbena. Mr. Obaigbena served as grand host of the show and after party and has committed to making the African Collective a New York Fashion Week tradition. “Fashion is culture and I believe culture is far more compelling than politics. Fashion goes to the people, culture goes to the grass roots,” said Obaigbena when asked of the event’s significance to Africa. Authors have covered both 2009 and 2010 shows, noting increased interest in the ARISE Collective from one year to next. |
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| L. to r.: Ms. Deola Sagoe; ARISE Founder Nduka Obaigbena with Tyson Beckford. |
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| Backstage with Editor Helen Jennings and Style Editor of ThisDay Nigeria, Ruth Osime. |
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| Tyson Beckford and models backstage. |
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| L. to r.: Keri Ingvarsson and Char Harper; Jake Bright and model, Ger Duany. |
| This year’s designers included Black Coffee (South Africa), Loin Cloth & Ashers (Tanzania), and Deola Sagoe (Nigeria), many of whom integrated African fabric into their collections. Sagoe noted that in addition to drawing on African influences, she had also been inspired by American designers like Marc Jacobs. She praised the evening as an opportunity to show world and fashion industry what African designers have to offer, “The show is of huge significance to Africa and African fashion. Now we’ve been given a global platform. There is so much talent in Africa, but we haven’t had the platform to show it. If African designers are going to make it out there, they’ve got to be able to show it to the audience that matters.” |
| 2009 Collection ... |
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| David Tlale, who presented at the last New York show, said that in addition to giving African designers center stage in front of the fashion community, the Collective offers a unique medium to break down stereotypes. “Some people think African style is just leopard print and we dine and lounge with lions and elephants. African designers are much more sophisticated and African design has influenced fashion from Gaultier to Dior.” |
| Black Coffee ... |
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| Deola Sagoe ... |
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| Loin Cloth & Ashes ... |
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| Hundreds of viewers came out for the event, seemingly twice as many more as last year, including a large cross section of New York’s African community. While New Yorkers come in contact with Africans each day, few may understand the extent to which a new wave of Africans has set roots in America. There is a neighborhood called Little Senegal in Harlem where nearly all shops and restaurants are African, Friday Mosque is heard by loudspeaker, women mingle on the sidewalk in traditional garb, and first generation children play and ride bikes in the street interchanging French, English, and Wolof. As this year’s ARISE show crescendoed with a grand walk off and standing applause for designers and host Obaigbena, one sensed much more at hand than just fashion. When asked what the Collective meant to her, one attendee said, “I don’t think people realize there are over a million new African immigrants in the US. Tonight is our night for the spotlight, to show we’ve arrived.” |
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| Jake Bright and Cocody Productions Directors Tunge Agboke and KO with friends at Plaza after party. |
| Photographs by Dan Lecca; Emma Cleary; Bennett Raglin. |
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