New York Fashion Week was slow to warm to African designers, but it’s been a growing love affair ever since a watershed moment in 2009. That year, NYFW debuted the African Fashion Collective, which finally put African designers on the stage and demonstrated to the world that African fashion is bold, incredibly diverse, and extremely desirable. African brands namely Stoned Cherrie (South Africa), Xuly Bet (Mali), Momo Couture (Nigeria), and Tiffany Amber (Nigeria) were received in the Bryant Park tents as part of the African Fashion Collective. Barack Obama had been sworn in as America’s first Black president a month before, and it was deemed by the fashion public as the “Obama Effect.” These designers dispelled homogenous narratives about Africa through their presentations, shining a light on the creativity and craftsmanship the continent had to offer.
