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Changing Trends of Fashion Education in Africa - Shift from Construction to Designing

Imagine yourself two decades back, when you would have expressed your desire to choose a career in fashion designing like one of your relative, managing a boutique. You would have been scolded by your parents on your aspiration to become like a tailor. I also got scolded when i opted to take a stint into fashion training just after my senior high schools in early 1990s. It was an era when most of the high school graduates were interested or counseled to opt for computer science, medicine or engineering at tertiary level. But thanks to my parents as they agreed for me to opt for designing, which was then emerging in India in 1994 and lot of youngsters (both female and male) were opting fashion, textile and graphic design as full time careers. We suddenly saw a host of private institutions with international tie-ups setting up fashion design schools in major cities with good number of students opting to study there. Now i realise the mantra behind their success in early years. It was their strategic shift in disassociating themselves from the part-time career option to full-fledged opportunity and integrating international curriculum in their execution, which i feel that was done after a lot of research. I also realised that hardly any design school was promoted by a fashion designer.

Formal fashion education in Africa has existed since the early 1970s, with East and South Africa taking the lead. When government across the continent started concentrating on vocational and technical training for increasing employability among youth, garment construction and “fashion design” took a centre stage when promulgating projects for women. Most of these vocational and technical courses in design were inclined towards teaching students tailoring skills, which definitely was more job-oriented and fulfilled government's mandate for skills development.

African fashion is increasingly being accepted and adopted in across the globe, an indication of good quality, but designers within Africa are yet to find a fully sustainable market locally. Some experts believe that the fashion industry in Africa is, more or less, a cottage industry, faced with gaps that scare investors from committing to developing the sector. There is a fashion education gap in Africa, a factor responsible for the low number of professionals in the industry and the not-so-serious perception accorded to the sector. Very few universities across continent are offering first or master’s degree in fashion. Most of the designers in Africa who made it to the top of the chart studied from schools in Europe or America.

What are some of the factors which should encourage development of fashion education in Africa? 
  • The world seems to be fascinated by African culture and design. There is growing interest in African fashion and African fashion designers based in Europe and North America. As per Adiat Disu, Director of Africa Fashion Week in New York City: “There are quite a few designers operating directly out of Africa. At least 50 percent to 75 percent of our designers who showcase in New York’s Africa Fashion Week come from Africa. Equally important are the many designers based in the UK and U.S. who outsource to Africa, working with African designers, tailors, and seamstresses back home.”
  • A rising number of urban and small town consumers purchasing branded fashion have led to the growth of branded retail industry in Africa. Many foreign and African multinational labels are eyeing an entry into this lucrative market. New studies are also boasting about the future prospects of the continent’s luxury market. The luxury market is poised to expand multiple folds since the number of millionaires expected to multiply in coming years. According to the 2014 Ventures Africa Rich List, there are 55 billionaires in the 55 countries that criss-cross the continent. Meanwhile, New World Wealth counts 165,000 African millionaires, who together hold an incredible 28 percent of the continent’s total personally-held wealth. This rise in the urban customers and billionaires are opening up an opportunity for African designers to sell common and celebrity designs to them.
  • There is a huge gap in supply of trained designers due to unavailability of professional schools and universities offering specialised courses in fashion design. Existing schools mainly in South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Kenya have done an excellent work in bringing design education to the forefront of career options available for youngsters. This has also prompted agencies to host numerous fashion weeks in most of these countries where students can showcase their creativity, which was not the case earlier.
  • After interviewing more than seventy graduates from various universities and polytechnics in Ghana for our design school project, i affirmed my belief on why we need a strategic shift in the design education. A lot of students want to get higher qualification in design, but are left with very few options to select from. Most of the qualification available in the universities and polytechnics are still influenced by early employability syndrome. Students are made to understand that stitching garment is one of the major skills they should learn, which will make them more employable. But, if we compare curriculums of design schools in Europe or America with one available in Africa, we will realise the striking difference in the approach. I also believe that multiple factors combined enhance the design and creativity skills of a “designer-in-making”. Illustration, drawing, history, merchandising, CAD, manufacturing technology, fabric science, surface ornamentation, forecasting and a host of other subjects are core to becoming a designer along with garment construction.
If we accept this shift in our fashion education, in the world of fashion, there exists a massive opportunity for fresh fashion ideas, business and growth and Africa is key to it. In fact, there are massive areas of ‘”newness” in fashion which can be incorporated to take a lead in this sector, technology is one of them. I must say that there are institutions like LISOF, BlueCrest School of Fashion & Design, and others, who are the trendsetters in this change. Universities should also focus on launching new programmes in fashion designing to fill this gap, as a shift from construction to designing is required to put Africa on the top of fashion map.

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