Introducing Industrie Africa: The Fashion Directory For Young African Designers

Nisha Kanabar and Georgia Bobley are on a mission to showcase the full breadth and depth of fashion design in Africa. “The industry here is so fractured. People in Nigeria know little about what’s happening in Kenya or Mozambique, for example,” says Kanabar, a native Tanzanian, who cut her teeth as a fashion marketer working for the likes of both Indian and American Vogue. “Our question was: How do we connect the dots between the different countries?”

Launched on June 1, Industrie Africa is the digital answer to a traditional showroom, housing over 80 designers from 24 nations across Africa. It took Kanabar and Bobley, a born New Yorker based in Dubai, one year to cover ground at all four corners of the continent, and bring together the brightest and best designers. With options to search by country, category (womenswear, menswear, accessories), and sustainability, the duo have put site navigation at the heart of the project.

From Kidd Hunta, a menswear label redefining the look of Zimbabwean identity with tailoring filtered through a sub-Saharan lens, to Thebe Magugu, whose artsy, expertly layered aesthetic speaks to a new generation of stylish and empowered South African women, Industrie Africa is enough to stop even the most casual online fashion tourist in their tracks.

“People often view African fashion as a trend that comes in waves and it’s so much more than that,” says Kanabar, who hopes the site will become a go-to destination for buyers, editors, and consumers alike. “We want to show that there’s a diversity of talent here that defies all expectations.”