Last year the the New York Times announced “Suddenly Africa is Everywhere!”. Africa was in movies, on the catwalks and on our newstands. The realization that Africa is being rebranded from an international charity case, into a rapidly emerging market, is sending some brands running to stake a claim in the once ignored continent. Joining the list of luxury brands opening up storefronts in Africa, is Ermenildo Zegna. The Italian [...]
For 4 days starting today 4 February 2010, Parisians can enjoy the results of a partnership between Puma and contemporary artist Kehinde Wiley. Wiley was commissioned to paint portraits of Puma-sponsored African football stars Samuel Eto’o of Cameroon, John Mensah of Ghana and Emmanuel Eboué of Ivory Coast. He also did a fourth one with all three of them to symbolise African unity. All four portraits will be on exhibition at [...]
This summer gone, Vogue UK reported New York fashion designer and entrepreneur Rachel Roy and British singer/MC Estelle were joining forces to create a jewelry line. Now the pair are teaming up with Fair Winds Trading, a social enterprise via which African and Indonesian craftswomen are able to sell their wares in US mainstream retail outlets like Macy’s. Roy announced via her twitter and facebook pages that next month she [...]
For the second part of this insert, Kimathi surveys the possibility of Jamhuri Wear as an iconic global lifestyle brand with Kenya as the literal and symbolic heart. He compares the scene he left to the diverse and bustling one he returns to. Present on both is Fundi Frank, a veteran Kenyan street fashion designer, and a major influence for Kimathi, who drops in to show some love. When Karl Kani [...]
From a simple tusker t-shirt, Jeffrey Kimathi has grown Jamhuri Wear into Africa’s premier global street wear label. The Kenyan entrepreneur and designer meets AfriPOP! in the backyard of his South B suburb home in Nairobi, where he has returned for the first time since he left ten years ago. He describes the formative years, sketching the outline of the Kenyan urban landscape back then and narrating his own personal [...]
I wondered when they’d rope in Sway for this one. And sure enough Glass and a Half Full Productions (the people behind the famous Gorilla ad) called up Brit/Ghanaian rapper and producer Sway to team up with Ghanaian Hip-life star Tinny on the remix for Zingolo, the first ever music single launched in September to celebrate Cadbury Dairy Milk’s new Fairtrade status. The video, a colourful event full of shiny [...]
Jostling about in the back of a matatu from Nairobi’s South B suburb to the city centre a couple months ago with TKZee’s Fiasco blaring, I had to smile at the memory it evoked: Members and former school mates Tokollo “Magesh” Tshabalala, Kabelo “Bouga Luv” Mabalane, and Zwai Bala sheepishly confessing publicly they’d named their then hit in error. They’d meant “fiesta”. As in, a celebration. It was 1999 around [...]
