The international fashion industry has evolved over the last five years, introducing a growing number of new-generation, high-profile models from the African continent who are bursting, with aplomb, onto the world’s stage. African models being in the global limelight is not a new phenomenon per se: Names of supermodels such as Iman (Somalia), Alek Wek (South Sudan), Oluchi (Nigeria), Liya Kebede (Ethiopia), and the late Katoucha Nian (Guinea) line the pages of fashion’s history books. In addition, more recently, models such as Maria Borges (Angola), Adut Akech (South Sudan), and Halima Aden (Somalia) are gallantly paving the way for a new generation of discoveries. The new guard of fresh African faces on the global fashion body—a movement which may be (at least partially) credited to forces like Ingrid Tamborin, a Milan-based mother agent who scouts African models from the continent and places them with international agencies in Milan, Paris, London and New York—follow the strides of Africa’s storied ambassadors of the catwalk.

Be it in editorial campaigns or recent runway appearances, this new generation of African models are becoming industry mainstays, their names firmly planted on the lips of fashion’s inner circle. “What’s beautiful about this group is that they are all telling a different story”, notes Tamborin. From a former Ethiopian athlete to a Senegalese-Italian It-girl-in-the-making, Industrie Africa has rounded up the next generation faces of African descent that you need to know now.