Fashion Trailblazers Storm Glo-sponsored African Voices

Two trailblazers who are re-designing the African fashion landscape will this week be on African Voices Changemakers, the CNN magazine programme sponsored by telecommunications service provider, Globacom.

They are Nkwo Onwuka, Creative Director of Abuja, Nigeria-based Nkwo Design Studios, and Rich Mnisi, Creative Director, Rich Mnisi, an exclusive label domiciled in South Africa. 

Operating under the label, Dakala Cloth, Onwuka desires to reduce textile waste.

She has, to this end, focused on creating limited edition fashion styles from left-over pieces of denim, made in Nigeria cotton, end-of-line fabrics and cutting table waste.

The label aims to harness the capabilities of past and contemporary technology to promote a sustainable preservation of traditional crafts.

The fashion enthusiast transforms traditional methods of hand craft like weaving, beading, hand dyeing and embroidery to give newness to fabrics and make them suitable for conventional use.

His South African contemporary, Mnisi, is a young designer who has special interest in pop-culture fashion.

A graduate of Fashion Design and Business Management of the South African School of Fashion, he founded his own brand OATH Studio in 2014, the year he won the African Fashion International Young designer award at the  Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Africa.

The 30-minute programme will be on CNN on DSTV channel 401 on Saturday at 9.30 a.m., while repeats of the interesting edition will be broadcast on Sunday at 4.30 a.m., 7.30 a.m., 12.30 p.m. and 7.30 p.m.

Another repeat comes up at 4.00 a.m. on Monday, while a two-part, fifteen-minute repeat will be shown on Tuesday and Wednesday at 6.45 p.m.