Cape Town or Lagos: where is Africa’s fashion capital?

The Language Monitor releases a yearly list of the world’s fashion capitals. This year it put New York at the top, with London dropping to second place. Johannesburg, which last year ranked 18th, this year dropped significantly to 37th. Cape Town on the other hand, rose 27 places to 27th position. The cities are the only two on the African continent to make it on the list, despite Lagos, Nigeria’s well-publicised attempt at being seen as the continent’s fashion capital. In hindsight, according to this body, Cape Town is the hub of the African continent’s fashion industry.

The Language Monitor compiles its list by scouring traditional and social media sources throughout the year. This includes reputable news media publications, magazines, blogs and even Twitter, to see what conversations people are having about fashion. The mention of a particular city in the fashion context is what determines how highly the city ranks. In essence, the more people have to say about Lagos, Nigeria and its fashion industry and style in general, the more it is likely going to rise above Cape Town. The debate as Africa's Top Global Fashion started after South Africans echoed their opinion about the latest ranking. To them Johannesburg is Africa's fashion capital. Not Cape Town. But that is not true, I believe Lagos is ever rising and deserves a place with its designers and latest ankara fashion.




“We think the figures are probably quite skewed,” Klûk says. “It’s great to know that Cape Town has achieved this status, particularly because our design office is there, but as designers, we definitely have to think national and even continental to keep up with buying trends.

“We also believe Nigerian designers are strong contenders, their fashion aesthetic is more international than ours.” - Sunday Independent