NICOLA LO CALZO

Starting from early 2000s, Africa has been in the center of a new revolution involving fashion and luxury industries. Major African capitals such as Dakar, Niamey, Abidjan and Cape Town are becoming attractive laboratories to new designers from the black continent and from Europe claiming the label of “Made in Africa”. In the center of this cultural development is a new generation of designers most of whom are French citizens of African origin, promoting and selling African fashion at an international level. Mickael Kra from the Ivory Coast, Imane Ayissi from Cameroun, Alphadi from Niger are the protagonist leaders of a progressing market.
From weaving of cotton threads to design studios and fashion shows those designers make headlines in the pan-African press and in national media despite the lack of finances.  The media coverage is extraordinary considering that their enterprises are small workshops.
During the “Black World Festival” that took place in Dakar, Senegal in December 2010, photographer Nicola Lo Calzo teamed up with Mission Culture went to document the work of this new generation of African designers, explore the characteristics of the Euro-African cultural blend and the place of African fashion in today’s globalized world