Our Initiatives
Africa's Young Fashion Leaders Fellowship
Africa's Young Fashion Leaders Fellowship' is an annual professional development experience and training scheme offering emerging talent the opportunity to work on live projects and produce impactful solutions, resulting in an impactful change in the global fashion industry.
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This initiative brings in a new generation of diverse African talent and enriches the fashion industry by bringing in fresh diverse skills, viewpoints and ideas. The fellowship is a fully funded part-time opportunity for young talent on the continent and the diaspora to obtain professional experience and ongoing mentoring while learning about the global fashion industry.
We recognise that in particular, for professionals on the continent and the diaspora, it can feel disproportionately challenging to access resources and opportunities needed to thrive in the fashion industry. That is why we’re looking within the continent to find and nurture exceptional talent to join CIAFE’s Africa’s Young Fashion Leaders Fellowship.
Bloomsbury Publishing x CIAFE Cases
Bloomsbury Fashion Business Cases brings fashion business to life and creates a link between education and industry. Designed to help students develop the essential business skills required by the next generation of fashion industry professionals, this digital resource is global in focus. It presents real-world cases of challenges facing the fashion business, tackling critical issues such as sustainability, technology, ethics, and leadership. The resource is tailored to provide the tools to steer students toward success as they transition to a career in fashion. The CIAFE Bloomsbury Case Study was created to develop scholarly activity on the African continent. We will cover many perspectives, such as Afro-Brazilian Fashion, Afro-Italian Fashion, Black-American Fashion, Black British Fashion and more.
If you’d like to learn more and participate click here
Journal for African and Diaspora Fashion
In collaboration with STADIO, the Journal for African and Diaspora Fashion is a mixed-media interdisciplinary peer-reviewed academic journal. A compilation of research across various topics, including Textiles and Fabrics, Culture and Society, Marketing and Branding, Technology and Innovation, Economics, Business Management and more. The journal is published bi-annually and encourages research from students, academics and industry professionals.
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The journal features original research articles, review articles, and case studies that cover a wide range of African and Diaspora fashion topics: including textile production, fashion design, fashion history, cultural studies, fashion technology and the fashion market. The journal welcomes submissions from scholars, researchers, educators, and industry professionals with expertise in African and Diaspora fashion.
African Fashion and Diaspora Research Network
The CIAFE African Fashion and Diaspora Research Network is an interdisciplinary group of scholars, institutions, and organisations committed to advancing the study of African and Diaspora fashion within an academic framework. The network comprises scholars, researchers, educators, and industry professionals with a wide range of expertise, including but not limited to fashion studies, cultural studies, history, anthropology, sociology, business, technology and economics. The network aims to foster a multi-disciplinary approach to studying African and Diaspora fashion by bringing together a diverse group of experts.
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The African and Diaspora Fashion Research Network aims to contribute to the academic field of fashion studies by providing a platform for critical and scholarly engagement with the African and Diaspora fashion industry. Through collaborative research, publications, and conferences, the network aims to generate new knowledge, foster dialogue, and promote the advancement of the field. Additionally, the network aims to support the professional development of its members by providing opportunities for networking, mentorship, and skill-building.
The Language Centre
Regardless of your reasons for learning a foreign language, the language you learn can impact your potential career path. For this reason, many people aiming to enter a particular profession learn the language that goes with it. The Language Centre initiative by CIAFE was created to contribute to breaking language barriers globally. Under this initiative, CIAFE has taught three virtual classes: French, Portuguese and Italian. All classes have been tremendously beneficial to the course attendees and allow us to keep realising our goal of teaching people in different languages to help bridge the language barrier gap in communicating with other African countries and other countries of the world.
Book Conversations
CIAFE Book Conversations are designed to examine significant fashion authors and their literature, particularly how it contributes to African fashion education. The session features students, educators, heads of institutions and authors who want to gain more insight into the African fashion industry.
Book Conversations take place virtually, and during each event, we are joined by amazing authors not only from the continent and the diaspora but authors who have published notable fashion books. It is an open education event where you can interact with different authors in the global fashion education community.
Authors from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and Helen Jennings of New African Fashion have joined us in the past.
Guest Lectures
CIAFE Guest Lectures is an event where we invite industry experts to educate academics, students, researchers, educators, and fashion business owners interested in learning and gaining insight into the fashion industry. During Guest Lectures, researchers or industry professionals teach a specialist subject. This is an excellent opportunity to gain knowledge in diverse fashion education topics from different experts within the fashion education space.
Tech Workshops
CIAFE presents a 60-minute technology workshop to provide educators and students with the resources to deepen their knowledge about technologies impacting fashion education and the industry. The monthly workshop deep dives into relevant topics and highlights practical tech skill sets needed in fashion education.
Coding Courses
This is a unique opportunity to learn how to code a website through video gaming. It is a fun and engaging experience. Life is Tech is an educational IT course where 23000+ global students are learning how to code. The course allows students to acquire IT skills to “imagine” and “create” by learning advanced programming skills across various platforms. Through this three weeks coding asynchronous course, you will acquire coding skills to build a website through gaming that will teach you how to do the following:
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Basic knowledge of HTML & CSS
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Learn how to design and structure a website
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Learn how to update/edit the code of a website
African Fashion Research Fund
The CIAFE African Fashion Research Fund (AFRF) is an initiative aimed at promoting research into African fashion, textiles, and related industries. At present, the grant targets early-career researchers interested in exploring the rich cultural heritage and economic potential of the African fashion ecosystem.
The research may focus on a specific aspect of African/African Diaspora fashion, such as traditional textiles and weaving techniques, contemporary fashion trends and styles, sustainability, beauty and hair or the social and economic impact of the fashion industry on African communities and international markets.
