Vogue Talents and African Fashion Foundation presents Scouting For Africa 2020

Africa is a vast, ancient continent with old traditions and a history of craftsmanship. In the last few years, many African fashion designers are coming on to the scene, with a new approach as well as ideas fuelled by such a strong heritage. Many of these African creatives are bringing us new perspectives on sustainable design thanks to handmade, organic methods, or they offer up a mix of aesthetics that bring together different worlds. Vogue Talents has already supported the work of those representing African fashion, such as South African Thebe Magugu who is a clear example of these trends, as well as rising star Kenneth Ize, from Nigeria, and Maxhosa Africa, the South African knitwear brand by Laduma Ngxokolo. In fact Vogue Talents has always included Africa in its scouting initiatives because it has already realized the potential of this fascinating continent and now wants to launch a new project to offer a more focused and concrete platform for these creatives. 

Scouting for Africa 2020 is the name of this project conceived by Vogue Talents and African Fashion Foundation (AFF) with the support of IFFAC. African Fashion Foundation is a non-profit organization that supports and promotes African designers providing them with educational opportunities and the tools to succeed in the fashion industry. AFF works as an incubator for these creatives and in order to nurture them it guides the designers throughout a mentorship programme, refining their ideas and showing them the right path to follow, with the purpose to uplift their career and become globally recognized. In fact AFF has secured industry and educational partnerships to provide capacity building through educational opportunities such as workshops, online courses, and scholarships in addition to internship placements, work experience, mentoring, sales opportunities, access to industry leaders and insiders, and manufacturing and production assistance; while also creating new and sustainable jobs which have important spill-over effects on other industries. 

Until 30th June 2020, all African designers, both residing in Africa and anywhere else in the world, can apply to be part of this scouting project by writing to the address scoutingforafrica@condenast.it and including the following materials: 

- images of the latest two collections specifying the relevant season; 

- a biography;

- a list of stockists;

- the application (PDF form) which can be downloaded here and must be properly completed. 

The winner of this contest will have the opportunity to showcase his/her clothing creations or accessories in a special corner of Palazzo Cusani during Milan Fashion Week in September 2020.

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