Luxury Fashion in Africa?
At the IHT Luxury Conference in Rome, many said that Africa could become the next major hub for high-end fashion. Barbie Latza Nadeau reports.
Donning wooden, leopard-print earrings, Suzy Menkes, the legendary fashion editor of the International Herald Tribune,
spoke to hundreds at the Rome Cavalieri, a decadent hotel that sits
atop the city’s highest hill. Yet instead of discussing the merits of
hand-stitching and dyed pelts, Menkes referred to a solemn passage from
Il Gattopardo, an Italian novel about Lampedusa, a troubled island on
the Mediterranean Sea, where war-weary African migrants have been
flocking since the Arab Spring. Sitting in front of her were roughly 600
designers and critics including a number of fashion greats—Vivienne
Westwood, Manolo Blahnik, and Jean Paul Gaultier—who gathered in a dimly
lit ballroom to discuss two seemingly disparate topics at the IHT’s
12th annual Luxury Conference: luxury fashion and Africa.
When
one thinks of African art and fashion, tourist trinkets invariably come
to mind, images of beaded bracelets sold outside safari lodges. The
view is unfair, of course, but common. Slowly, however, this misplaced
caricature is changing as a growing number of fashion designers and
industry experts are looking to Africa as the next major hub for the
production—and eventually the consumption—of luxury fashion products.
Yet as the fashion industry takes notice of the continent, some fear
that high hopes will soon give way to exploitation and sweatshops as has
occurred in countries such as China and Bangladesh. “There has to be a
balance between virtue and desire,” said Bono, the U2 frontman and
activist, who attended the second day of the conference.
One
fashion luminary who is trying to break the mold is Nigerian-native
Duro Olowu, one of Michelle Obama’s favorite designers and a man who
represents the type of African high fashion that the luxury leaders are
hoping to harness. Olowu told the audience that although none of his
clothes are on the market in Nigeria, he hoped that Africans will one
day become luxury consumers at home. So far only Ermenegildo Zegna has
dared to open a shop in Lagos, Nigeria’s impoverished capital, but Olowu
expects that to change. “It’s reasonable that one day streets in Lagos
will be lined with the same fashion boutiques found in European
capitals,” he said. Nigerians spend more than any other country in
Africa on luxury goods, but only when they travel abroad because so few
options are available at home. “Africans are big spenders across the
world, but they cannot spend their money at home,” said Franca Sozzani,
editor-in-chief of Italian Vogue. “We need to help them.” Yet she
cautioned that: “Africa is a continent, not a country, and must not be
considered as one market.”
On
the surface, investing in clothing factories borders on frivolous when
not everyone on the continent has food and fresh water. But many at the
conference said that foreign aid—while important—can also encourage
dependence, and that investing in fashion manufacturing could empower
the population to become skilled workers, high earners, and eventually
customers. “The future focus is doing real business,” said Jochen Zeita,
the chairman of Puma, noting that many Africans have a keen interest in
luxury goods, whether they can afford them or not. “Luxury is not about
price, but inspiration, rare, bespoke and quality far beyond utility.”
Increasingly,
luxury is also about diversity. Gaultier, the French designer whose
signature spiked gray hair and charming savoir faire made him the
darling of the conference, said that African models made his clothes
come alive, liberating him from industry norms. “There are different
kinds of beauty,” he said. For years, Gaultier has been ahead of his
time, using unique women of all shapes, sizes, and ethnicities in his
seasonal shows, and both he and Menkes scolded Italian and French
fashion houses for sticking to cookie-cutter, thin white models on the
catwalks. “There needs to be a real push and effort by the fashion
houses to encourage diversity on the runway,” said Menkes.
As the fashion industry takes notice of the continent, some fear that high hopes will soon give way to exploitation and sweatshops.
One
of the biggest risks in turning Africa into a producer of luxury goods
is the fear of sweatshops, which have developed in fashion-production
enclaves all over the world. Many fashion activists used their time on
stage to warn industry leaders that it is their responsibility to act
ethically as they develop new markets. A somewhat jittery Bono,
who was accompanied by his wife, Ali Hewson, lauded Africans as
creative entrepreneurial people who need to be supported, not exploited.
And Firth, whose “green-carpet challenge”
made headlines when she vowed only to wear sustainable fashion when she
accompanied her Oscar-winning husband on the red carpet, expressed hope
that designers would act wisely and ethically in Africa. “What is it
going to take to get designers to invest in Africa?” she asked. “They
have potential because they can learn from the mistakes of China and
Bangladesh. They [Africans] have already had a slave trade. They aren’t
going to allow another one.”
Let’s hope she’s right.
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