The House
A stage, a studio, and a door.
Africa’s Next Top Designers & Models exists to find talent with a point of view and put that talent where it can be seen. Africa’s talents. Our global pride.
The brief
Born here. Finished for a wider room.
Fashion from this continent has never been short of invention. What it has sometimes lacked is a house that treats designers and models as one conversation: the hand that cuts the cloth, and the body that gives the cloth its walk.
That is the work. We read portfolios. We look at faces. We prepare a presentation worthy of both. Then we make the photographs that let the work travel without us standing next to it.
The mark
Three figures, one continent.
The crest is a circle of flags. Inside it, a map, and three silhouettes: a man in a tailored suit, a woman in a gown, a woman in a hat. A crown sits at the hem of the cloth. Under the name, the line we keep — Africa’s talents, our global pride — and a small continent, so we do not forget the ground.
It is not decoration. It is the cast list. Designers. Models. The whole map.
What the house believes.
Four sentences we can actually keep.
- 01
Cloth has a passport.
Wax print, aso-oke, kente, bark, satin, and wool can sit in the same sentence. Origin is not a limit on finish.
- 02
The face is half the design.
A collection without a model who understands it is only a sketch. We cast with the same care we critique.
- 03
Critique is a kindness.
The room is direct. Praise that cannot be used is not praise. We would rather be useful than polite.
- 04
The photograph has to last.
After the lights come up, the picture is what the world keeps. We treat that picture as part of the work.
Nollywood
The screen, in cloth.
Iyabo Ojo, Femi Adebayo, Lola Alao, and Odunlade Adekola.
Photographs of Iyabo Ojo and Odunlade Adekola by Danielle G. Campbell, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. These portraits name the actors. They are not an endorsement of the house.
The map
Where we are looking.
Not a list of offices. A list of cities whose designers and models we want in the room — on the continent and in the diaspora that answers to it.
West
Lagos, Accra, Dakar, Abidjan, Kumasi
East
Nairobi, Kigali, Addis Ababa, Dar es Salaam
South
Johannesburg, Cape Town, Luanda, Gaborone
North
Cairo, Casablanca, Tunis
Speak to us
The door is a phone call wide.
If you would rather talk than fill a form, call. If you would rather send the work, write.
Apply