For its third edition, the fashion designer parade of the winners of the Africa Fashion Up competition took place on July 7 and for the first time in the gardens of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum in Paris. By parading in this emblematic place, African fashion designers weave links between ancient arts, cultures while celebrating their diversity. This event came to sort of close the Paris Fashion Week, which took place from July 3 to 6, and above all to show that the African continent is full of talent.

For the five winners – Aristide Loua (Ivorian) Yonael Marga, (Ethiopian), Ibrahim Taju (Nigerian), Shamyra Moodley (South African), Sjafaru Larry (Ghanaian)* – this parade in front of more than 500 people was the point of organ of a week of immersion behind the scenes of Parisian fashion.

The winners were selected on the basis of their creativity, their background, their inspirations and the sustainable and social dimension of their brand. “The competition launched online in February. This year, we had 159 applications from all over the world, from the United States, from Dubai and of course from all over the African continent. Young fashion leaders that we have trained, photographers, journalists, fashion people will go on site to check the work of the designers to confirm our pre-selection. This pre-selection is presented to the members of the jury who then determine a final selection, “explains Valérie Ka, former Franco-Ivorian model and founder of her own ready-to-wear brand. She launched Africa Fashion Up to put African creativity on the international fashion catwalks.

“The Africa Fashion Up show is a key step in the Parisian adventure of the winners. It comes after a week of valuable support intended to open new doors to success,” comments Valérie Ka. During this Parisian week, the five African designers benefited from training and coaching and were able to participate in master classes given by Balenciaga, visit major fashion houses and couture workshops, and in particular 19 M, the new cultural center dedicated to Chanel crafts in Aubervilliers, as well as the Galeries Lafayette Haussmann department store.

In the months to come, they will be able to follow courses in management provided by HEC Paris and will benefit from personalized support from Balenciaga as part of an extended mentoring program.

The parade is also a show, with guest artists the dancer Yann Antonio and the rappers Passi and Orti, as well as a superb decor and scenography signed by the artist Junior Fritz Jacquet, paper sculptor.

At the end of the show, the jury, made up of professionals from prestigious fashion brands, chooses the winner.

Aristide Loua, originally from Côte d’Ivoire, launched his brand Kente Gentlmen in April 2017. “I have an atypical background,” he admits. Self-taught in fashion, I studied mathematics in New York. I left the Ivory Coast when I was 15, I did three years in India and 10 years in the United States. During this whole period, I did not return home! The trigger came in 2013, when my mother sent me shirts that she had had sewn in Abidjan. Wearing them made me want to rediscover my identity, my origins, through fashion. When I returned to Côte d’Ivoire in 2015, I was able to meet craftsmen, tailors for making clothes and put together a team to create the brand. In 2017, I made a first capsule collection. »

Behind the scenes, questioning Valérie Ka on the choice of the winner and the criteria of the jury, she explains that for example, for the designer Ibrahim Taju, whose pieces presented are exceptional, “the members of the jury, most of them are European, found that it wasn’t African enough. They wanted to highlight the fabrics that Ivorian women make”.

*The 5 winners of Africa Fashion Up are: Aristide Loua, Ivorian designer, for Kente Gentlemen; Yonael Marga, Ethiopian designer, for Yonael Marga; Ibrahim Taju, Nigerian designer, for TJWHO; Shamyra Moodley, South African designer, for Laaniraani; Sjafaru Larry, Ghanaian designer, for Larry Jay