AFRICAN AF is OkayAfrica’s first homegrown collection.
While we've been releasing collaborative lines over the years, this is the very first one that we dreamed up and designed in-house.
Some of our AFRICAN AF designs were inspired by popular references, like Naija No Dey Carry Last, and others simply by how we, and our global community, feels. See our I Don't Speak African design and our "leaders T" where we shout-out Mandela, Biko, Nkrumah, Lumumba, and Fela.
SHOP THE NEW ‘AFRICAN AF’ COLLECTION HERE
"This collection came out of a need to have something that spoke about African pride on a wide scale," says OkayAfrica's Sinat Giwa. Starting with AFRICAN AF, the team brainstormed a series of pop culture references, adapting them for a young, pan-African audience.
"The African Uni collegiate T-shirt is the banner piece for me," Giwa adds. "It encompasses what the collection is about and what it was started for—it's referential but also really inclusive."
"With this photo shoot, we wanted to do something that had a vibe and included popular cultural references—from the fabric we used with the deep colors and textures, to the incorporation of instruments and other signifiers of different areas in the continent and in the diaspora," says Giwa. "We have books about travel from borderless writers and, of course Fela records."
Check out all the new designs in our editorial shoot with photographer Dex R. Jones. and shop the collection over at our OkayAfrica store.
The AFRICAN AF collection was designed by Oyinkan Olojede and Abiola Oke. Lookbook produced by Sinat Giwa and Oyinkan Olojede.