A beautiful and colourful weekend in Amsterdam saw the opening of Africa Fashion Week Amsterdam’s second edition. Held at the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) in Amsterdam, designers, press, models and other industry professionals mingled and took in the atmosphere and surroundings that totally lent itself to show off the best of African and African inspired fashion.
The colourful and glamorous event was hosted by charming Nigerian and Nollywood’s superstar Ramsey Nouah. The multiple ward-winning actor welcomed guests wearing bold designs from Blackpearl’s Secret by Diana Tambe who is also the founder of Africa Fashion Week Amsterdam.
The event was opened by the renowned handmade dutch produced designer Omar Munie. Designers from as far afield as Zambia were represented at Africa Fashion Week Amsterdam. Lia Samantha flew in from South America especially to highlight the fact that African print is becoming enormously popular in Colombia.
AFWA was also about bringing awareness to sustainability, ethical material sourcing and fair trade. Mrs. Jos Huber from the Dutch Ministry of foreign affairs shared her vision on sustainability in fashion. “Workers need to get their share, go for fair trade from the start, she said. She also highlighted that Kenya has a good social model and a perfect example for other African countries.
Albert Chapel the Dutch artist who specializes in wood and haute couture collaboration with Diana Tambe (the brain and inspiration behind the collection) and presented their unique style by bringing high fashion drama, wearable wood designs to the final show. This blended perfectly well with AFWA’s ever-evolving fashion conscious collective. In addition, the Dutch-Cameroonian fashion designer Diana Tambe also showed her colourful and glamourous designs from her Blackpearl Secret’s spring/summer 2016 collection that was sponsored by Holland Textiles NL.
Africa Fashion Week Amsterdam’s hair and makeup artist brought their expertise in Afro-beauty to the African fashion spectacle.
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