For BellaStylistas in America, shopping some of the best pieces from African brands might prove difficult because most of a lack of retail spaces; physical or digital where their pieces are sold.
Enter The Folklore – a carefully curated online store of apparel, shoes, jewellery, and more from 19 contemporary designers from Africa and the African diaspora, which launched over the weekend at New York Fashion Week with a pop-up store on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
In an interview with Vogue, Amira Rasool, the Cape Town-based CEO and Founder said:
I don’t want to sell anyone ‘Africa,’ or the idea of African luxury, I want to sell styles made by African designers. They have a very minimal, contemporary aesthetic. You could pick something up and not know where it’s from, and that’s because it’s an extension of the designer, not the place they’re from.
These clothes are also going to be part of a visual story that can help change the way people look at the continent, and, hopefully, help and encourage people to come visit the continent more and support these designers in any way that they can.
The platform’s Autumn/Winter 2018 lookbook was inspired by South African designers’ ability to incorporate the rural landscapes of Cape Town with the urban aesthetic of Johannesburg.
Models Anyon Asola and Wilhelmina were styled in fall looks from South African brands W35T, Mmuso Maxwell, Selfi , Pichulik, and Waif.
Watch the campaign video here
Click on the gallery below to see the full lookbook
