5 Trends from Africa Fashion Week Toronto 2017

The city’s best dressed gathered at the Royal Ontario Museum from August 16 to 20, 2017 for Africa Fashion Week Toronto. The runway featured a range of established and emerging designers from the “King of Couture” and celebrity designer Adebayo Jones to Forbes featured designer Ofuure. While the event was going on and aside from the occasional break to take selfie pictures, I was busy analyzing commons themes on the runway. The entire event was exciting to say the very least and this busy girl from Kitchener was glad to have made the trip to Toronto to attend. If you were second-guessing whether you should have been there or not, you missed out. Nevertheless, here are a list of five trends I spotted on the runway.

Crop Tops: Ever since Ofuure started designing off-shoulder crop tops with African prints bringing them to widespread popularity, I have been seeing spin-offs of this design everywhere and the runway was not exempt.

Feathers and plumes: Light as a feather but sturdy in the wind. These regal garments are fit for a goddess and they do more for the female figure than just offer an occasional plume.

High Slits: Running up the thighs from the ankle, slits are no more a thing of the past. For the woman who enjoys baring a sexy leg or two, the high slit is just the thing she needs.

Prints On Sheer Fabrics: If you love a little “see through” once in a while, you will enjoy this. Ofuure’s collection teased the audience with sheer fabrics in all the right places.

Metalics: As fall/winter approaches, there is no better time than now to unleash metallic golds, bronzes or silvers. And when the weather has got you feeling down, a pop of yellow will be there to brighten your mood.

You can find out more information about future events from Africa Fashion Week Toronto online at their website. If you are in the area, make sure you don’t miss next year’s event. It will be bigger and better. On that note, I want to ask what you think about these types of events in the African diaspora. If there was one in your city, would it encourage you to wear prints everyday or would you reserve them for special events? I listened to the Co-founder talk about the sense of pride that accompanies such celebrations on CBC Toronto’s Metro Morning and it was very revealing. You can listen to it here. I think this ties into a broader conversation about how versatile African prints are. Let me know what you think in the comments below.

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Jamila Kyari

I’m a seasoned communications and marketing consultant with a penchant for all things stylish and chic. Follow me on social media and subscribe to the newsletter for regular updates on industry trends and much more!

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