Entertainers in Nigeria promoting African fashion globally —Ghanaian fashion designer, Nana Yaw Owusu

Nana Yaw Owusu is one of Ghana’s topmost fashion designers and the Chief Executive Officer of the Yaw Beko fashion and clothing brand. In this interview by Newton-Ray Ukwuoma, the former banker spoke about the emerging influence of African fashion in the world. Excerpts:

Looking at the long years of influence western fashion has had on Africa, how, in your opinion, has the African fashion evolved and what does the future hold for African fashion?

For a long time, we have been stuck with the Western or Westernised clothing, but things have started to change. African fashion is gaining more and more global attention. In fact, it is beginning to influence the world because these days, we see people like Beyoncé wearing African styled clothes, we see Hollywood stars rocking African fashion. You can take the Nigerian jersey for example. It was globally accepted and sold everywhere. All of these give the idea that people are beginning to accept what Africans are doing. African fashion is beginning to get into the mainstream of world fashion. People like Davido and Wizkid are putting a lot of quality contents not just in their songs, but also in their outlook as a whole. It is bringing more and more attention to Africa. And so, the future is bright for African fashion.

 

Besides designing, what else are fashion designers like you doing to create global awareness for African fashion?

Aside my fashion brand, I have a Youtube channel named, African Men & More. It is, so far, the only channel about African men’s fashion in Africa. On this platform, I talk about everything African fashion. I have videos of how African men dress, how to tuck your caftan or agbada. I have videos on top 10 men fashion houses to check out when you come to Africa, top foot wears to acquire when you come to Africa. By putting out contents like this on Youtube, I try to bring more eyeballs into what we are doing in Africa, because these contents are already available for Western fashion and have been used to promote fashion brands. However, we do not have Youtube channels dedicated to African fashion like others do.

This is why I do not only restrict the brands to only Yaw Beko brands but to other brands in the continent. For example, in the video where I talk about A list designers to check out in Africa, I mentioned designers from Nigeria, from South Africa, Cote D’voire and Ghana. By taking the pains to research these brands, I try to tell the world how far African fashion has come.

 

Looking ahead, what is your vision for African fashion? What are the prospects?

My vision is for African fashion and clothing to gain more global prominence and acceptance. I want African fashion and clothing to feature prominently in fashion weeks such as the Paris Fashion Week, Milan Fashion Week and also feature on their platforms. The whole picture is to be copiously noticed on the world stage.

 

You mentioned how African fashion and clothing is gaining attention and acceptance. Do you think the current level of acceptance is satisfactory? Or do you think more needs to be done?

Yes. But first, we must acknowledge that things are changing. People’s minds are beginning to come around to accept Africa for what it is. We are beginning to embrace ourselves, to tell our own stories. And it is gradually spreading to Africans outside and then, non-Africans. Yes, more awareness needs to be created. Fashion designers in Africa also need to step up their games a notch higher in creating modern and competitive designs.

Entertainers in Africa must also continue to put our culture and clothing in mind while creating their contents and our people and government must prioritise African fashion more. In Ghana for instance, there is a made-in-Ghana Friday, where people wear only made in Ghana and other traditional attires to work. I hear it is the same in Nigeria. It started gradually and now it has become a norm. Now, when you go to church on Sunday and you don’t see people in Western clothes. We are beginning to love our own. And that is nice.

 

Talking about creative and competitive designs, what concepts do you adopt in making your clothing fashionable, attractive and classy?

For a long time, our traditional wears were mainly raw and plain because of the machines available then in making them. Now, the kinds of clothes we make are best described as contemporary African wears. These wears are usually a mixture of fabrics from both western and African fabrics. We infuse Western fabric with African ones to give it some modern look, it is no more boring. We try to make it as modernised as possible. So, the concept is infusion.

ALSO READ: Anxiety over Adeosun’s status

From my research, beside the fabric infusion, most of your outfits rely on denims and corduroys. Do you consider this a form of reliance on Western fashion and clothing?

Yes, but we cannot entirely move from the westernised clothing like the chinos and the denims to our own for now. For me, getting our African fabrics to complement them is a good step. We can get denim from outside, but wear it with an African top. It is a transition. But with time, we can do everything with African print.

 

Do you think Nigerian fashion designers are influencing the fashion designing industry in Africa?

Yes. In one of the videos where I talked about five iconic hats an African man should own, I talked about the Bama hat, the red hat and the fila hat. These caps are originally Nigerian caps, but we now consider them African caps.

That is the extent to which Nigerian fashion is accepted in Africa. In fact, it has had a level of superintendence on African fashion. If we are copying fashion from the western world, we should as well do it from a neighbouring African country. You cannot deny that something is nice, if it is really nice. It is not a secret that Nigeria fashion is influencing the rest of Africa.

 

Is there any form of collaboration with your outfit and outfits in Nigeria?

In terms of collaboration, I am willing to have some Nigerian fashion houses collaborate with my brand, especially for my videos and for the clothing brands. With Nigeria, I see a lot of collaborations.

 

Do you think fashion in itself can influence society and thought process? Or what is the social potential of fashion?

Take the movie, Black Panther; you see the noise around it, why, because it is African. The movie dwelled on the different cultures in Africa. Fashion is very strong; it has the potential of changing things. If I wear an African fabric from top to bottom, nobody will have to tell another person that I am from Africa. I think the story of Africa is one that is not well told, but now Africa is rising, things are coming out of Africa. With fashion we can rewrite the story of Africa.

 

You were a banker before venturing into fashion. Why did you leave your regular job for fashion designer?

I would say it is because of my passion. It was my passion to do something art related. Growing up, I was an accounting student all through my formal education, but almost always you will find me with a pen and paper sketching one thing or the other. Growing, I knew I was going to do something in the creative circle, but I didn’t know what it was. It was my love for art and the opportunity that I saw in that part of the economy that encouraged me. I saw that people were beginning to embrace this side of economy.

 

What are the challenges you faced trying to navigate through this path?

My major challenge was my parents. I am the only child. The meaning of Yaw in my company name is Thursday born.  Where I come from in Ghana, every Thursday born is called Yaw. Bako means one. That is the reason behind the name Yaw Bako. After school, I started working in the bank and just few years into the job, I told them I was going to leave to become an entrepreneur. At that time, fashion designing hadn’t gained a lot of attention in Ghana. So, it was tough on them. It was really hard getting them to accept this new career.

 

When did you leave the banking for fashion designing?

 

I left banking in 2016. But before then, I had already started my fashion house.