Yaaya At: Africa Fashion Week London 2013 | The Saturday Exhibitions

Africa Fashion Week
London 2013

Yaaya attended Africa Fashion Week London for the first time, in trendy Brick Lane at the Truman Brewery. We are proud to say that it was well worth our time, energy and money. We met some talented and passionate designers at the exhibitions stalls, and we were exposed to some of Africa’s most influential and up-and-coming designers.

As Yaaya is concerned with providing a platform to celebrate talent and ambition, we took particular interest in meeting designers who were showcasing their products on exhibition stalls. Find out more about the designers and the companies we met below!

Shoes

Dionne Gooding makes shoes that exude originality, sophistication and quality. We were intrigued by the distinctive and unusual African prints on her shoes, and how each shoe represented a distinct character.


Upon visiting Dionne’s website, it’s clear to see that she is a professional designer, who is passionate about creating show stopping shoes, and is not afraid to experiment with different fabrics, embellishments, colours and styles. Her achievements to date so far illustrate this, and we were glad to have had the opportunity to discover her work. Check out more pictures from her shoe line below. Images below courtesy of the Dionne Gooding website.

Contact Info | Twitter: @DGooding_shoes | Facebook: Dionne Gooding Shoes | Website | Email: info@dionnegooding.com



Accessories

Lewa Jewel specializes in producing bold statement jewellery with a contemporary African influence. We spent some time speaking to the founder of Lewa Jewel, who explained to us the intricate and manual process of making these truly one-of-a-kind Lewa Jewel designs.

We found her work to reflect the time and effort she spends on each piece, as seen in the clean cut professional finishing of her jewellery. The fanciful patterns she creates using dyes, illustrates a special creative quality of Lewa Jewel that distinguishes her work from her competitors. This instantly captured our attention. Images below courtesy of the Lewa Jewel Etsy page.

Contact Info | Etsy: Lewa Jewel | Email: lewajewel@gmail.com

Kenza Accessories was founded in 2012. The company designs handbags, clutches, jewellery (earrings, rings, necklaces, bracelets and body chains), sunglasses, hats and scarves. They pride themselves in being able to offer a range different styles and trends to for women, ranging from contemporary, African and vintage designs.

Kenza Accessories showed off their jewellery collection at Africa Fashion Week London, which left us very impressed! Video below courtesy of the Kenza Accessories YouTube channel.

Contact Info | Twitter: @KENZAccessories | Facebook: Kenza Accessories | Website | Email: info@kenzaaccessories

Kiyana Wraps can best be described as 'head-wrapping artists'. We first heard about Kiyana Wraps through media coverage at 'Africa Fashion Week London 2012' and through various fashion blogs and websites.

It was thus a pleasant surprise when we stumbled across this stall to see Kiyana Wraps for ourselves! This company is clearly on a mission to make head-wrapping a fashionable art-form and head-wraps a complimentary accessory to any outfit. Video below courtesy of the Kiyana Wraps YouTube channel.

Contact Info | Twitter: @KiyanaWraps | Facebook: Kiyana Wraps | Website | Email: kiyanawrapsit@gmail.com



Cosmetics

SoTonye is a cosmetics company that specialises in using natural ingredients for skin and hair products. Their products are free from chemically-infused products, and pride themselves on using natural oils and fruits such as shea shalva, shea idonea, avocado oil, jojoba oil and coconut oil.

We loved the warm and sweet smelling scent of the So Tonye products and appreciate the abundance of information they provided about maintaining healthy hair and skin. Image below courtesy of the SoTonye website.

Contact Info | Twitter: @sotonye24 | Facebook: SoTonye Naturals | Website | Email: info@sotonye.co.uk

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Image Source | Image courtesy of Africa Fashion Week London. All images are copyright of Yaaya unless otherwise stated.