Africa Fashion Up 2021,
FIRST edition
Emmanuel Okoro Sacred "Grand Designer Africa Fashion Up 2021"
Friday evening, September 17, the Nigerian Emmanuel Okoro was crowned “Designer 2021” at the end of the parade of the first edition of Africa Fashion Up. Founder and creative director of the Emmy Kasbit brand launched in 2014, Emmanuel Okoro was able to convince the jury as much by his sleek design aesthetics and architectural cuts as by the quality of his pieces woven with akwete, a textile named after the village of Eastern Nigeria.
Emmanuel Okoro 's pieces were presented during the parade alongside those of the other winners: Zac Koné (Côte d'Ivoire), Guy Fabrice Sullivan (Côte d'Ivoire), the duo Natasha Jaume & Carina Louw (South Africa). The pieces were presented under the gaze attention of 5 internationally renowned African designers, namely Imane Ayissi (Cameroon), Karim Tassi (Morocco), Martial Tapolo (Cameroon), Eric Raisina (Madagascar) and Soraya Da Piedade (Angola).
Thanks to Africa Fashion Up, the 5 candidate-winners benefited from two days of immersion behind the scenes of the fashion capital of the world through a series of visits. Partner of the operation, the Balenciaga haute couture house opened its doors to these promising talents in order to provide them with advice and encouragement through masterclasses.
The latter were also received in Imane Ayissi's studio, met Sophie Erika, Business and Collection Planning Director of Kenzo Mode finally met with Mr Liot, General Manager of Galeries Lafayette and his team.
During the next few months, the 5 winners will benefit from support personalized, which will take the form of a mentoring program, offered by the Balenciaga haute couture house, and training delivered by the prestigious HEC Paris management school.
In addition, Emmanuel Okoro, Designer Africa Fashion Up 2021, received an award given by the e-commerce platform Jedaya offering him the enhancement and online sale of his collection for 1 year as well as an exclusive collaboration with an iconic American Streetwear brand.
2021 PROMOTION'S GODFATHER
Imane Ayissi,
The 2021 Sponsor Imane Ayissi, the first designer from sub-Saharan Africa to be included in the prestigious official haute couture calendar in Paris in 2020 and whose collections reflect the immense diversity of know-how on the African continent, has agreed to be the sponsor of the class of 2021 Africa Fashion Up. He invited the winners to discover his workshop and to discuss with him during their stay in Paris and he participated in the day of the parade on September 17, in particular by exhibiting its latest models.
ARTIST GUEST
Debsito
ARTIST SINGER Debsito Debsito did us the honor of participating in the 1st edition of the parade. Singer artist, songwriter and producer of urban Afro-pop, he was immersed in music from an early age thanks to his father Debaba, a Congolese star who evolved alongside Papa Wemba, Koffi Olomide and many other names. of the DRC. Debsito begins with the production and the sound arrangement for other artists then he successively integrates different groups of singers before joining the group Black Bazar which will multiply the performances almost everywhere in Europe and Africa. In 2019, Debsito goes solo and releases his first project "Parano" which will be a success and total more than 4 million streams on different platforms. His new project "Étincelles", a 6-track Ep is currently available on all platforms and has already totaled nearly 2 million streams.
Country: Angola
Country: Madagascar
Paris: Morocco
Country: Cameroon
