© Catwalk Capture: Simon Klyne and Karyn Louise
© Catwalk Capture: Simon Klyne and Karyn Louise
© Mehmuna Schumann
© Catwalk Capture: Simon Klyne and Karyn Louise
what is afrofashion
afrofashion is more than just another fashion label. It is primarily African designer fashion with a strong focus on sustainability.
It was created because Mehmuna Schumann saw the need to help tailors and textile vendors in Malawi that struggled to make a living. Second-hand clothes swamp the markets of Malawi and other African countries and slowly but surely destroy the traditional clothing production, mainly family owned micro-businesses that buy, manufacture and sell locally. Even worse, with the influx of cheap second-hand items, traditional African fabrics are vanishing and with these, the cultural roots of people as well as their pride and dignity.
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afrofashion's principal goal was to revive true African fashion using African garment and textile production. This, afrofashion strives to achieve through several approaches:
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1. Through designing individual fashion items made in Africa by Africans with mainly African fabric that have been and will be shown to the world at renown fashion shows and in fashion magazines
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2. Through cooperation with African weavers and tailors in order to improve quality and viability of the production
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3. Through collaboration with other African and international designers and sponsors to organize events that focus on African fashion culture, often combined with awareness campaigns about Albinism
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4. Through promoting a sustainable fashion production using upcycling and slow-fashion, fair prices and fair wages, decent working conditions and respectful collaboration.
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afrofashion is currently working and producing in Tunisia, Mali and Malawi and participates in several initiatives that aim to build and strengthen a true African fashion industry that will support people in Africa in creating sustainable livelihoods and give them back identity and self-esteem.
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Join us on this marvelous journey, be part of a movement that promotes change and hope for a continent that has so much untapped potential.
about afrofashion
Fashion Designer Mehmuna Ibrahim Schumann established her design label afrofashion in Lilongwe / Malawi in March 2008. All began very humble with a small show on Mehmuna's verandah.
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afrofashion strives to promote local African fashion production through manufacturing sustainable African clothes inspired by African culture. In Lilongwe, Mehmuna started working with individual tailors, local fabric vendors and young designer talents.
Together with "Fashion Malawi Edition" (F.A.M.E.), afrofashion was pivotal in making Malawi's fashion scene noted on a global scale. Mehmuna was a visiting representative at the Berlin Fashion Week 2009 and her designs have been published in various fashion magazines and newspapers...as far as Japan.
Even after moving to Bamako / Mali in 2010, she still remained true to afrofashion's philosophy of promoting local talent while taking full advantage of Mali’s amazing locally made and hand coloured fabrics. Since 2018, Mehmuna has moved to Tunisia, where she discovered more traditional fabrics.
Mehmuna has showcased her designs at the Africa Fashion Week London 2012 and 2013, at London Fashion Week 2014 and at many other fashion shows in Africa and Europe.
The combination of traditional african and modern design elements, rare and individual relics and accessories and daring cutting patterns creates a very distinctive style that has gained international recognition and an incredibly loyal client base.
afrofashion loves individual fashion: tailoring each item as an individual piece of creativity. We believe that even standard patterns should receive modifications of colour, fabric, accessories and should be tailor-made to suite your beautiful body. So please feel free to contact us to make your order a unique piece of afrofashion artwork...and just as individual as you are!
made to fit
There is nothing like a tailor-made piece of clothing that follows your shape perfectly. In times of fast fashion, made to fit apparel has become rare and luxurious, but we at afrofashion believe that it should be nothing exceptional.
While we do offer ready-made items with standard sizes, we are more than happy to use your measurements for your individual, one of a kind fashion item.
Furthermore, size interpretation is different depending on the region and brands and is the cause for many returned clothes.
Hence, for the sake of a perfect fit and sustainability, afrofashion offers you to submit your sizes and we will confection your item accordingly. This service reduces the risk of sending you the wrong size, you having to return it and us to ship a new item, causing more carbon emission through transport and more efforts for you.
We recommend to take measurements and to send us these using the Dress Measurement Application, a free software that allows you to store your measurements, update them, if necessary, and send them to us via email. To get the right measurements as demanded by the application, ask a friend that knows how measuring works or - even better - a tailor.
There are also applications that take photos of you to calculate your size automatically, but we cannot recommend these, yet, due to accuracy concerns. We still believe in good old-fashioned measuring.
