Contemplating Made In Africa

NEW YORK, United States — Off the back of an inaugural ALARA x Brooklyn Museum partnership, just wrapped Lagos Fashion Week celebration, and even Beyonce’s wardrobe during her Renaissance World Tour, anecdotally, there has never been a more momentous time to be Made In Africa. What took so long? While domestic fashion exports have served other nations well as a soft power tool to denote the ultimate value of a thing beyond its intrinsic properties, it begs the question why the same tactics have not worked to the same effect across the continent?

Imane Ayissi Haute Couture / @imane_ayissi

As the UNESCO report issued in October reveals, a big part of that stems from the late 1980s and early 1990s when World Bank and IMF imposed programs forced African countries to release tariff protections against imports in exchange for debt forgiveness. By doing so, waves of imported fabrics flooded the region that ultimately decimated domestic production that had previously sustained not only the labor market, but also the overall economy.

Economics lessons aside, in the present-day, more and more emerging brands tout Made In Africa (and of course substitute for their respective country of origin) as a part of their authentic storytelling or creative dominance; much the same has been seen in France (champagne), Italy (leather goods), and China (technology) to name a few. While it is certainly valuable to leverage Made In Africa where indigenous or craft traditions are purported, such as adire and bogolan, or even homegrown ingredients, such as shea butter and safou oil, I would argue that the denotation is not as necessary for a brand of today.

Telfar Duffle Bag (not to be confused with the Shopping Bag) / @telfarglobal

The beautiful nature of the African diaspora is that they navigate between the continent and elsewhere with a fluidity rarely matched. There are strong hubs of African talent throughout the world — in a way that frankly France or Italy could not claim. The same traditional constraints of Made In Africa need not apply to diaspora constituents.

Take for example, Telfar, founded by Liberian-American Telfar Clemens, who produces his beloved ‘Bushwick Birkins’ in China. Telfar could be a much bigger brand — in the realm of $500M — with investments in assortment and expansion into new territories. Telfar represents one of the burgeoning talents outside of the continent, but that is an important distinction and defining attribute not to underestimate.

With a broader lens to the small, but growing role diaspora creatives play across the United States and elsewhere, it indicates something that other nations cannot claim. While their goods may not be produced on the continent, these designers represent something of a new phrase to consider, Made Of Africa, which truly may be far more powerful than any statistical figure or geographic limitation could contain.