New African Fashion

As the highly regarded editor of Nigeria’s Arise magazine in Nigeria and now the editorial director of Nataal, Helen Jennings has had her eye on the newest, most innovative and best of African fashion for decades, and is thus the ideal author for this wide-ranging work on the continent’s foremost designers. Featuring designer bios and deeply researched descriptive texts about a real pantheon of top talents from across the continent and the diaspora, this book also includes lots of gorgeous photographs that constitute a diverse trove of visual inspiration. And the fact that it prominently features the beautiful work of one of my own favourite diasporan designers, Duro Olowu (whose art-filled Instagram feed is also worth a follow) is the sartorial cherry on top. Inevitably a little dated now – it was published in 2011 – New African Fashion nevertheless remains an essential reference for anyone with an interest in the past, present and future of African style.