African Heritage Fashion Week showcases Cameroon’s incredible talent

The African Heritage Fashion Week and Awards taking place in Buea (April 17–April 20, 2024) have opportunely invited Cameroonian fashion designers to showcase the country’s talent, and celebrate creativity, and celebrate cultural diversity.

The event, which rallied several local designers and models, aimed to elevate Cameroon’s fashion industry onto the global stage.

On Thursday, April 18th, at 8:30 p.m., the venue buzzed with excitement as designers, models, and fashion enthusiasts from across Cameroon gathered around the stage.

As the event kicked off, models strutted down the runway with grace and confidence, showcasing a diverse range of outfits, including conventional, beachwear, party attire, and bridal wear.

The night’s theme, “Cowboy Night,” saw audience members donning hats to embrace the cowboy aesthetic.

The crowd cheered and applauded as each designer’s unique creations graced the stage.

Most of the designers hail from Buea’s Nuvi Creative School of Fashion and Design, a fashion design firm founded by award-winning model Nuvi Gana.

Nuvi Creative organised the event with support from Pinorich Villa, where the event was hosted, with Mimi Mefo Info as its principal media partner. Other partners have also contributed to the event’s success.

For many attendees, like MC Dibenja Ngotto, the event was a testament to the burgeoning creativity within Cameroon’s fashion industry.

MC Dibenja expressed his admiration for the diverse range of designers, from students to established professionals, who showcased their designs during the event.

“I came here because I love to see young Cameroonians being creative,” he said.
 
He said the African Heritage Fashion Week and Awards was 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,” Dibenja added.

Despite the challenges facing the fashion industry in Cameroon, such as reliance on cheap imports and the ongoing Anglophone conflict, the event provided a platform for local talent to shine.

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

A diverse number of costumes have been worn over the event’s four days. In addition, designers have been attending master classes covering all aspects of design.

Organized by Nuvi Creative, the fashion week aimed to support and elevate Cameroon’s fashion actors, models, and designers.

Nuvi Gana, founder of Nuvi Creative, told MMI the event is focused on African multiculturalism and its role as a platform for breaking down barriers within the fashion industry.

“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,” Nuvi said.

He added that the AHF sets out the platform of all fashion actors that is geared toward breaking through the walls that have limited the success of designers, models, artists and bead makers. 

Furthermore, Gana highlighted the event’s broader mission to address challenges faced by the private sector and promote entrepreneurship in Cameroon.

He said their desire is for the Cameroon government to support young entrepreneurs by granting them loans at affordable rates and by promoting 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