ARISE Magazine Headlines Top African Designers At NYFW

On Saturday, February 13th at 8 p.m., show producer Jan Malan will transform Bryant Park’s largest venue, The Tent, into a living African landscape with elaborate staging inspired by award-winning poet Ben Okri. Leading global African-themed style and cultural magazine ARISE selected top African designers Black Coffee, Loin Cloth and Ashes and along with Deola Sagoe to showcase Fall/Winter 2010 designs during the publication’s AFRICAN COLLECTIVE PART III Mercedes Benz Fashion Week runway presentation. In addition to the New York show, ARISE Magazine will present during Paris Fashion Week on March 5, 2010, and host a ‘Fashion Rocks’ event in Johannesburg on July, 9, 2010. The highly-anticipated event will feature a fashion show and simultaneous performance by an uber, American songstress.

Fresh from Berlin Fashion Week and receiving the Mercedes Benz South Africa Best Fashion Award 2009, Black Coffee designers Jacques van der Watt and Danica Lepen are new to a US audience. “It’s a great experience for us and a little bit of a treat in a business that is a great deal of hard work,” said van der Watt.

Lagos-based Deola Sagoe will be returning to New York Fashion Week after a decade. “To have come this far ordains a measure of success that I could not have imagined for myself. I am thrilled and honored to be showing in New York.”

For the first time, an emerging designer, Loin Cloth and Ashes, from Tanzania, will also be part of the collective ensuring a triumvirate of African Design is represented. “My one dream was always to show my work in Africa,” said Anisa Mpungwe. “I would have never for one minute thought that I would ever show overseas, let alone in America, I am grateful to ARISE Magazine for this incredible opportunity.”