African Fashion Foundation (AFF) and the Women's Empowerment and Investment Group (WEIG), founded by Adeline Akufo Addo Kufuor, have joined forces to galvanise African women in response to the urgent need for face protection masks within Ghana and beyond. To achieve this objective, AFF shall provide the necessary expertise aimed at upskilling selected African women and designers carefully identified by and to be nurtured by WEIG.
WEIG is working with high-quality fashion designers like Torlowei and Clatural, providing them with support in production and sales of face protection masks. As a result, many seamstresses have been able to continue working to provide for their families throughout the pandemic. WEIG is a focused investment holdings organization focusing on women. The organization has already secured several industrial and academic partnerships to help empower women. It believes economic empowerment of women is the bedrock to sustain broader socio-economic independence in communities and broader society. Through this unique partnership with AFF, it is hoped that a win-win platform will be created for African female creatives to be globally recognized.
AFF participated in the Ethical Fashion Hackathon hosted by Ethical Fashion Initiative. On May 6th, the Ethical Fashion Hackathon brought together the brainpower of people from all sectors across sixty countries to create innovative solutions for a better fashion industry and discuss some of the biggest challenges in the fashion industry: supply chains, fashion weeks and presentations, CSR and production and sales cycles. African Fashion Foundation's founder Roberta Annan discussed setting up a platform for fashion weeks that is more inclusive with a focus on artisans and using virtual platforms to expand the reach.
For Fashinnovation's Worldwide Talks on April 20th and 21st, AFF curated and moderated a panel entitled Fashion is African Heritage and Design with speakers such as Roberta Annan, Founder of African Fashion Foundation, Farai Simoyi, Fashion Designer and Founder of The Narativ, Kwaku Bediako, Fashion Designer and Founder of Chocolate by Kwaku and moderated by Alexis Rai Gaynor Hernandez, Director of Digital Strategy and Partnerships for African Fashion Foundation. Worldwide Talks was two full days, ninety inspiring leaders, one million people, from all around the world (120 countries) assembled virtually to discuss important topics in the "Fashion Industry" during Covid-19 pandemic, with the support of the United Nations Office for Partnerships & The Conscious Fashion Campaign. AFF will be curating and moderating another panel conversation for the second Worldwide Talks to be held on June 5th, World Environment Day and June 8th, 2020, World Oceans Day.
This month, AFF is launching a Digital Discussion series called African Fashion in Focus in partnership with The Lotte Accra and TAA PR. They will discuss various topics on fashion and business with industry leaders from all over the world to gain perspective from their experiences with the intention of sharing what's happening in Africa and adapting ideas from beyond Africa. The purpose of these discussions is to share specialized knowledge, expertise and create solutions together with a community of solution-oriented individuals who are empowered to continue the shift of the fashion industry in a positive direction. The mission is to share our ideas, challenges, strengths, and more with the hopes of inspiring and being inspired.
As the Stay-at-Home order is beginning to loosen for regions that are not severely impacted by the spread of Covid-19, African Fashion Foundation's Kayayei Fashion Training Programme, an initiative in partnership with The Lotte Ghana, Fashion 4 Development, Adonai Child Development Foundation that aims to equip homeless women from the streets of Accra, has resumed, allowing the Kayayei women to begin learning basic design skills in their design hub like embroidery, which will be used to create a collection with fashion and accessories designers. This creates job opportunity, promotes education, and enriches the community through collaboration. Once it is safe to resume lifestyles without Covid-19 being a threat, the trained Kayayei will be paired with fashion and accessories designers to collaborate on a collection that will be showcased using new and existing digital resources. Proceeds from the collection will then filter back into the programme to support its longevity.
Moreover you can find all the informations about the AFF and Vogue Talents scouting project Scouting for Africa here.
