It is well reported how devastating Covid-19 has been for the global fashion industry. With shop fronts closed, manufacturing halted, events cancelled and consumer demand crushed, the initial lockdown period caused a deep crisis. McKinsey’s The State of Fashion 2020 report predicts revenues will contract by up to 30 percent this year as financial and humanitarian hardships affect everyone along the value chain. This picture looks potentially bleaker for African fashion, which is more vulnerable given its relatively small market size (Euromonitor peg Sub-Saharan Africa having a $31 billion slice of the global $2.5 trillion pie) fragile supply chains, and reliance upon brick-and-mortar sales. While Covid-19 incidence rates across the continent have so far been lower than other parts of the world, governmental restrictions have often been severely implemented, severely impacting local economies.

“The lockdown meant less orders, increased costs, more health concerns and decreased tourism, which many informal artisanal economies rely upon,” says Abrima Erwiah, co-founder of Ghana-based brand Studio 189. But out of crisis comes clarity and Africa’s already resourceful designers were swift to come up with inventive initial responses. Like many others around the continent, Studio 189 quickly reorganized its production to make masks out of cotton off-cuts, thereby maintaining employment for their workers and supporting local healthcare facilities.

As the world tentatively comes out of lockdown, resilience and adaptability remain essential as the industry’s players make bold interventions in order to future-proof their businesses and meet changing consumer demands. And right now, this new thinking is most exhilarating in the digital sphere. A great number of virtual fashion talks, webinars and conferences have spurred solutions. Roberta Annan—businesswoman, philanthropist, and founder of African Fashion Foundation, an organisation supporting designers with capacity building—has been hosting African Fashion in Focus discussions on Zoom. Similarly, the Ethical Fashion Initiative (EFI), a program of the International Trade Centre, organized a brainstorming Hackathon and has just launched an accelerator program supporting five African designers: REIGN, Margaux Wong, Lukhanyo Mdingi, WUMAN and Jiamini.

Designer Aisha Ayensu, founder and creative director of Accra-based label Christie Brown, shares these sentiments and in June struck on the idea of pre-recording a one model SS‘20 fashion show for Instagram, which attracted 30,000 viewers. “As a team we had to think of a way to present the collection, create buzz, and ultimately inspire women to shop again,” Ayensu says. “We shot the runway over two days and the essence was to film the pieces in motion to give the semblance of an actual show. We sent virtual and physical invitations to clients to attend ‘the show’ and we found the conversion rate [from viewership] to sales was phenomenal.”

Going forward, it will be important to continue to innovate fashion’s digital space by escalating future tech including artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) to create even more immersive experiences. Already we’re seeing virtual clothes with built-in QR codes allowing you to zoom in on the details, as well as virtual changing rooms and stylists, apps that take measurements for bespoke goods and CGI campaigns. The likes of Burberry, Balmain and Maison Margiela have heartily embraced this approach and avatar models such as Lil Miquela, Shudu Gram, Kimzulu and Noonoouri have huge followings. In the African space, New York-based Congolese designer Anifa Mvuemba made mainstream headlines in May when she hosted 3D models and garments on a virtual runway for her Hanifa womenswear show on Instagram Live. The figure-hugging, six-look Pink Label Congo capsule collection was an ode to her homeland.


These advances create stunning online content but there are significant cost implications involved, and they also lack the human touch. “3D activations have been exciting to see this season but I think it’s also important that we take into consideration our evolving community whose earning capacity can be threatened by the industry’s complete dependence on them,” says Akerele, referring to everyone in the ecosphere from producers, dressers and stylists to models and influencers. “The digital fashion experience can coexist with the human experience, which is something that can’t be replaced by codes or software—yet. It’s definitely time to invest in more innovation centers that can equip our people with the technical skills they need to be relevant for the creative industry’s new digital immersion.” 

NYC-based creative content specialist Alexander-Julian Gibbson agrees there must be balance. “I think having to focus on digital experiences to keep the industry pushing has opened the door for new talent and interesting collaborations,” he says. “However there’s still joy in seeing the beauty in designs in person. I think there’s a luxury about it that African designers deserve. Digital should be embraced but not totally in lieu of in-person experiences.”

In Gibbson’s field of creative direction, photography, and publishing, he has also been inspired by neat solutions such as photographers shooting at-home diaries (for instance Stephen Tayo in Lagos for Farfetch) or shoots via video calling apps. Celebrities too turned the camera on themselves, including Naomi Campbell’s self-shot editorial for Essence magazine. “The challenges we face have helped me change the way I looked at telling stories, giving me the opportunity to connect with artists that I’ve admired to tell fashion stories through new mediums,” Gibbson adds.