My birthday at the African Fashion Week!

African Fashion Week London is a celebration of African design talent and the diverse ethnic influences that contribute to fashion in the UK. This exciting event champions new and emerging designers who are inspired by the rich culture of Africa and incorporate this heritage into contemporary design. Top designers were showcasing collections on the catwalk including British designer Ade Bakare from Nigeria and Adama Paris from Senegal, whose designs are popular in New York city and Tokyo boutiques.



The 8th of August was my birthday. As I had a day-off,  I chose to

attend this AFWL show at Olympia with Grace from Kenya. Luckily we arrived early as the queue was already halfway down the road from the doors. Using our free passes from FOCUS, we finally got in, and were amazed to see how big the hall was, with the catwalk in the centre, photographers already setting up, stallholders all round the hall displaying their wares in the best way to attract the crowd. Already crowds were shuffling to see the different, colourful African fabricated handbags, shoes, jewellery, headscarves to get the best purchases and bargains.


The show started at 2pm and we were lucky to
be seated at the aisle on the second row, thus enabling us to take pictures.  Each designer showed their talents on the models, parading down the catwalk, with cheers from the crowd. The loudest cheers, wolf whistles and clapping was for the warrior man, bare top, wearing a bow tie with shorts, and again at the end when he came out with the designer. There were various designers for each showing, and their designs ranged from casual, office-wear, day and

evening, and amazed everyone with the brilliance of their designs. The show lasted 45 minutes, with all the models dancing on the catwalk at the end, in time with the huge applause from the crowd. We were told that the next showing would be in 2 hours, but in the meantime, there were demonstrations by the vendors of their clothing – how to wear it, how to tie the various headscarves, more shopping, food and drinks for the hungry. Free magazines, samples for hair products, including fresh organic food were also being handed out, and I left the show laden with all these freebies.


Unfortunately, I could not stay for the next show as I had arranged to have tea with my sister and later  a scrumptious Turkish dinner with other friends and family. It was a good way to enjoy my birthday despite the heavy rain at the end!!

Written by Irene Kuan. Irene is Director of Finance at FOCUS.

For more information about FOCUS visit:  www.focus-info.org