By The recently concluded maiden edition of Design Fashion Africa- DFA broke the industry records by broadcasting the grand finale of the fashion show live across the 54 African countries simultaneously.
DFA that had its grand finale of the inaugural edition in Eko Hotel & Suits, Victoria Island Lagos on October 5, 2019, is an African fashion platform designed to celebrating the multiple fashion cultures in the continent on one runway.
DFA challenged the norm during the live event by broadcasting the event across Africa on satellite and terrestrial channels.
Models walking the runway with some African designer’s fabrics at DFA runway at Eko Hotel Victoria Island Lagos
According to Dr. Felix King, Chief Executive Officer of Oracle Experience, one of the co-\promoters of the fashion platform said, “Live broadcast is one of the most challenging to achieve in events except you are very sure of what you are doing, considering the technicalities involved and huge financial involvement,.”
He said, “Since we had designers and models participated in DFA from major African countries like South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Ethiopia, etc, the onus was then on us to ensure that their country back home see how much pride they are bringing to their countries and the continent,” adding that “It was important we make Africa see the unity we can achieve when we as a people and continent work together.”
The DFA philosophy is to discover, empower and inspire the future of world fashion through African fashion designers and upcoming talents. To do this, Dr. King said, “The entire Africa has to be covered. This is why it was on terrestrial and satellite TV stations via Sound City, Spice Lifestyle TV and ON TV.”
L-R: Mr. Olaoluwa Babalola, Brand Manager- Heineken, Dr. Felix King, chief Executive Officer, Oracle Experience- Co-promoted of DFA, Abubakar Jubril, winner 2019 DFA grand prize and Mai Atafo, renowned fashion designer at the presentation of Design Fashion Africa prize to the winner at Eko Hotel, Victoria Island Lagos.
In its content from the reality show to the grand finale, DFA tells the story of Africa fashion. It was all about Africa. The Grand Finale features celebration of North, South, East and West regions of Africa from the national flag parade of the 54 African countries in music, dance, poetry and fashion. If it’s Africa, then Africa has to see it, feel, live and own it,” the Oracle Experience boss stated.
The design fashion platform is aimed to reach Africans across the African Continent and beyond with the African Fashion story, which they are part of. Dr. King said, “the platform also aims to reach fashion lovers across the globe, because DFA is a combination of urban African fashion with international style.”
According to the organiser, “It’s not just a fashion show; it’s the African Fashion Olympics that every African Eye must behold. In this Olympics there’s only one winner – AFRICA.” On the grand finale, DFA went up live across the aforementioned TV channels across Africa by 9pm GMT.
The story of African Fashion and Design took a turn for greater heights when DFA announced the launch of the platform last month. The platform has been designed as the centre stage of the production mill that will feed new talents into wider Africa fashion industry.
Models walking with African designers designs at the DFA runway at Eko Hotel Victoria Island Lagos
“We want to bridge the gap between the today and the tomorrow of the fashion industry across the continent.”
Narrating the feat achieved by the fledging fashion and design platform, the chief executive officer of Oracle Experience stated that, the entire process started like a dream. “it started as dream,” adding that “A dream to rediscover the power of African fashion, a dream driven by passion, a dream to empower the future and a dream to celebrate Africa as the epicenter of fashion.”
DFA is an initiative of Oracle Experience, Nigeria’s largest experiential agency and Jakaranda productions and sponsored by Heineken, Access Bank and Ethiopia airlines, with Sound City-TV and Radio and Spice life style TV as media partners.
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