African Heritage Fashion Week and Awards Selling Cameroon to the World

Nowadays, Cameroonians have access to fine clothing created by local designers. A fashion show is at the centre of attention in Buea at Pinorich Villa, just a short distance from Buea Central Market, where Cameroonian designers are using dressmaking to celebrate their cultural heritage.

In Buea, it is Thursday, April 18, 8:30 p.m. Concerned citizens and designers from all around Cameroon were assembled around the stage.

Although they had heard of Fashion Week, they were unaware of its offerings. Models are rolled out onto the stage as it opens. They have a graceful, majestic gait. What matters is what they are wearing, not how they walk. There were a variety of dresses worn by the young boys and girls.

Walking from one end of the stage to the other, they will stand before an entire crowd before turning around and walking back to the beginning.

The background music adds flavour to the movement. These models wore a variety of outfits, including conventional, beach, party, and bridal attire. The majority of the designers who outfitted them were from Buea’s Nuvi Creative School of Fashion and Design.

It was the second night, with Cowboy Night as the theme.

There, the cowboy was represented by the audience members wearing hats. The audience cheered and yelled at the models’ diverse acts and designs. The designer revealed himself after each set of designs was completed. One industry that many Cameroonians have not given much thought to is fashion.

This is a result of the fact that a large number still depend mostly on inexpensive imports, which have flooded the Cameroonian market. These are a few of the difficulties facing the fashion business in Cameroon.

MC Dibenja Ngottu is among those who find the lack of focus on the Cameroonian fashion industry concerning.

He said to MMI that his passion for fashion was the reason he was attending the event.

“I came here because I love to see young Cameroonians being creative.” 

He said the African Heritage Fashion Week and Award were quite different from the other fashion events he has attended.

“Shows like this happen, but this is different because a lot of young designers are here. I have been to fashion events where they focused mostly on established designers. But today, we have seen student designers, young designers, and upcomers showcase their designs and how beautiful they are. I think that this is different from every other show that I have been on,” he said.

According to him, the lack of attention is because Cameroonians live in a system where there are a lot of setbacks, like the ongoing Anglophone conflict, which cannot allow some people to stay up late at night.

“However, I think that the crowd, though small, was encouraging.”

Over the event’s four days, many costumes will be worn. In addition, designers will attend master classes covering all aspects of design.

To support local designers, models, and fashion actors in Cameroon, the show’s organiser, Nuvi Creative, informed MMI that it is bringing in all of Africa’s fashion actors, designers, and models.

“African Heritage Fashion Week, 2nd edition, focuses especially on the experiences of African multiculturalism, which is tailored as an arena, Carrefour, and particularly a salad bowl for meeting and diagnosing some of these key issues and barriers in the African milieu of fashion, acting, music, and entertainment as a whole, as the main melting pot for fashion business in Africa.” Said Nuvi Gana, founder of Nuvi Creative, a fashion house in Buea.

To him, AHF sets out the platform of all fashion actors that is geared towards breaking through the walls that have kept designers, models, artists, bead makers, and fashion buyers limiting their success in their respective domains. 

This attempt outlines the challenges faced in the private sector, and that is why they have claimed the state of Cameroon on the one hand to make it easier for young entrepreneurs, to grant credit for the creation of enterprises, and on the other hand, to promote the clothing and haute couture industries. 

“This concept is also tailored to encourage commendable initiatives for the training of young people and the creation of decent jobs.” He said, adding that “this event also brings several fashion actors from all over Africa together to celebrate them and create a unique platform where we can all meet, network, and teach the younger generation.”

Mimi Mefo Info