CNN’s Inside Africa meets the designers spearheading sustainable fashion 

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In a new episode of Inside Africa, CNN meets the Black designers and creatives leading the charge for sustainable design and recycled couture.

Around 15 million used clothes arrive in Ghana every week from Western countries and China, mostly to Kantamanto, one of the biggest second-hand clothing markets in the world. But, around 40% of the clothing ends up on nearby beaches or as landfill.

Yayra Agbofah, founder of The Revival, talks about the consequences of this in Ghana: “[It] has had a massive impact on our environment, our beaches are dirty, our landfills or our dump sites are polluted with massive volumes of textile waste, and this is a huge contribution of fast fashion.”

Working with local tailors and second-hand resellers, and hosting pops ups and workshops as part of their ambition to take upcycling into the mainstream, Agbofah states that with The Revival, “We’re trying to create opportunities with waste and trying to redefine the fashion industry to be much more sustainable, environmentally conscious, at the same time creating opportunities for people.”

The Revival is helping drive the trend of wearing second-hand and upcycled clothing, counting Ghanaian musician and rapper Manifest among its followers. Chioma Nnadi, Head of Editorial Content at British Vogue, discusses the existing signs of changing sensibilities, “Even at the Met Gala this year, the whole theme was about reawakening and reawakening the archive, and a lot of big celebrities on the red carpet chose to wear vintage pieces.”

The Met Gala raises money for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, with this year’s special exhibition featuring work by sustainability trailblazer Torisheju Dumi, who tells CNN her hope is, “To show people that you can just use what you have, to create beautiful and interesting pieces and objects.”

The designer, however, acknowledges sustainability has become a bit of a buzzword, stating, “I feel as though that it’s very important to have different perspectives on sustainability. That’s the only way we can develop this whole term that we’ve created.”

Priya Ahluwalia, Founder & Creative Director of Ahluwalia, the multi-award-winning brand which has become synonymous with sustainable high fashion, also talks about what sustainability means to her, “For me, sustainability is about doing things in the best way that you can for people and the planet. […] is also about things like preserving people’s culture, heritage, preserving where people live, treating people fairly.”

Her business sources deadstock and vintage materials through Circulate, a recycling programme with Microsoft. She describes it as, “A platform that uses AI to allow us to crowdsource.”

She continues, “So if someone has a top that they no longer want, they can go on Circulate, take a photo of it, the technology will organise it and accept it or reject it through a number of criteria. So, we’re engaging our community in sustainability.”

Nnadi underscores the importance of government legislation and industry-wide changes in handling textile waste, “I mean, ultimately it should be something that we think about from on a legislation level. I think the government should be thinking about waste and how we handle textile waste.”

The rise of sustainable fashion consultants such as Nigerian brand consultant Zara Odu, founder of Designers Consociate & Roundabout, is also helping to grow the sustainable fashion industry. She describes what she does, “We help brands become more sustainable, from idea to product, and then helping them figure out how they can be more circular with the entire process.”

With more designers, brands and investment geared towards sustainable practices, Odu concludes there are signs the industry is making some progress towards sustainability, “You look at the creativity and the innovation that’s already coming out of the continent. So, you can imagine if that is supported, if that is lifted up higher, if that is further developed, you can only imagine what will come from that.”

https://edition.cnn.com/world/africa/inside-africa

Inside Africa airs on CNN International at the following times:

Monday 2nd September 2024 at 0330 GMT

Saturday 7th September 2024 at 0930 GMT

Sunday 8th September 2024 at 0200 GMT, 0530 GMT, 1030 GMT and 0430 GMT

Monday 9th September 2024 at 0330 GMT

For more information, please contact: emma.decesaris@cnn.com