There is a growing interest in African fashion and African designers in Europe. Africa Fashion Week London in August 2015 showed again how colourful the design really is. Africa Fashion Week London is highlighting the African fashion designers and create a global showcasting platform for the industry.
African print and colours are ’brave’ for Scandinavian consumers and probably more popular elsewhere as Scandinavian design are more ’pale’. Even so, Katja of Sweden might have been one of the first designers going to the African continent to get inspired. This was in 1962 and her new collection based on African prints were shown in Malmö 1963 with the name ’Katja goes to Africa’. How many of these colourful cloths stayed in Sweden? Probably not many as there is not much you can find on the vintage market. These lovely cloths probably ended up in the US and European market.
Source: www.africanfashionweeklondon.com,
Katja of Sweden biography by Katja Geiger and Lars Åhlander
Dagens Industri 7 September 2015
