Jacqueline Shaw a fashion designer, visionary and eco-entrepreneur started The Africa Fashion Guide blog, a portal for information and news on all aspects of the African fashion and textiles industry. You may have read or heard of her book Fashion Africa, launched this summer.
So where are you from?
I am a British-born Jamaican living in London.
What made you want to start this blog?
I have worked in fashion for ten years now and you could say I fell into the African fashion industry through my bridal-wear business Latibeau Ltd – producing traditional clothing for a lot of my African clients and my interest in African textiles and culture grew from there. I also can think back to my BA hons Fashion final project in 2001 where I created a capsule collection which focused on African slave trade.
How did your passion for eco-awareness come from?
Also over the course of my BA degree in 2001 I became more and more interested in the ethical side of the textiles industry. I became a runner up in the Smirnoff 2009 design awards and my project presented looked at the depleting ozone layer and used manmade versus natural fabrics to make a point of this. As I started a career in fashion and textiles working as a designer and visiting factories etc I saw often things I was uncomfortable with and felt a longing to make a difference i the industry. I wanted to work within the design industry in a responsible way and so combined my interest in Africa with my interest in sustainability as my way of being that change I wished to see as I often quote Mahatma Ghandi for saying.
What is the importance of ethical fashion in the African industry particularly?
This industry we all see as glitz and glam is seriously depleting the earth and above all abusing those who work in the back end. The aim (of Africa Fashion Guide) is to above all to give retailers, educational institions, designers and textile organisations another option to the overused and overstretched global textile industry by highlighting the possibility of Africa as a new sourcing destination to enable it to compete with other continents and global regions and to create the opportunity for African sourced materials and made projects the markets that will bring money to the continent.
Where are the readers of Africa Fashion Guide?
Our readers our worldwide from Germany, to Zimbabwe – I am often surprised by the locations of our subscribers and readers but it is encouraging to see we are gathering interest and making an impact
Your Africa Fashion Calendar is really handy. How easy is it to put something like that together?
This is not very complicated as I am now getting sent information directly from organisations as well as researching we do ourselves. This will be developed further as we develop the enterprise
What were some of the highlights at London Fashion Week for you? Do you notice any specific trends to do with African fashion in the UK and Europe?
I am noticing that there is more and more an interest in African prints and also an interest in working with African artisans. Maybe more designers are becoming more responsible and aware in their sourcing or it has become a major trend to source and produce in Africa. Either way the African designers are also making a stand and presenting at major events too such as London Fashion Week, This is showing to the mainstream industry of fashion and textiles that Africa has a lot more to offer and that it doesn’t just have to be about Ankara/wax print.
What can we look forward to in the future of AFG?
We have lots planned for 2012 including our first major conference. Our launch event on September 9 2011 gave our attendees and readers a taster. We will launch our directory, our competitions and also workshops which will kick off at the Hub of Africa Fashion Week which happens in Ethiopia this December, where we will be putting on our workshop and act as their media partners too.
We have so much in store as AFG will be the platform that makes an impact to the full supply chain of African fashion and textiles
