African-American model Diandra Forrest has her make-up and hair done before a show during the South Africa Fashion Week, Johannesburg 2012 © Per-Anders Pettersson
Gucci amends a dress before a show in the Kigali City Towers during the Kigali Fashion Week, Rwanda 2014 © Per-Anders Pettersson
Renowned photographer, Per-Anders Pettersson attended more than 40 fashion weeks in 15 countries over 5 years, from Rwanda to Botswana, Senegal to Nigeria.
African Catwalk, a collection of Pettersson’s photographs, is the first book to document Africa’s fashion industry from an exclusive behind the scenes perspective, says publisher Kehrer Verlag.
“Pettersson’s images are not only set to challenge stereotypes in African fashion, which include animal prints and ethnic designs, but are also meant to confront the ‘Western gaze’, a media perception in which Africa is but a war-torn continent rampant with poverty, disease and ethnic conflicts,” says Allessia Glaviano, senior photo editor for Vogue Italia, L’Uomo Vogue and web editor of Vogue.it.
The South Africa-based Ugandan model Patricia Akello wears a necklace by the Ugandan label Halisi, 2015 © Per-Anders Pettersson
Award winning Swedish photographer Per-Anders Pettersson shows a new and unexpected side of the African continent as he examines the fast growing fashion industry in Africa. This book is the first time the emerging African fashion industry has been documented in exclusive behind the scenes photographs. The series was taken in 15 countries around Africa from 2010 – 2015 and celebrates a new, vibrant, colorful, and unexpected view of the African continent.
Front row guests watch a show during the Lagos Fashion & Design Week, Nigeria 2013 © Per-Anders Pettersson
“The diversity of aesthetics, cultures and crafts makes African fashion interesting for international labels and consumers,” Glaviano argues.
Recent figures estimate the apparel and footwear market in Sub-saharan Africa is worth $31 billion, with home-grown designers attracting the attention of Beyoncé and fashion giant LVMH.
“African designers have a choice of assimilating themselves to international norms or standing out, and African Catwalk shows how the continent’s designers choose to rage against the traditional statutes of the global fashion machine,” says Allana Finely, an African fashion strategist.
“You come to understand the drive of the industry players to do whatever it takes to empower a new generation of creative personalities.”
South African model Geraldine Steenkamp and Cameroonian model Valerie Ayena at the Cape Town Fashion Week, South Africa 2012 © Per-Anders Pettersson
South African model Sanele Junior Xaba at the South African designer Chu Suwanapha during the South African Menswear Week in the Cape Town Stadium, South Africa 2015 © Per-Anders Pettersson
Models fit dresses for the Paris-based Cameroonian designer label Martial Tapolo Couture before a show in the Hôtel des Almadies during the Dakar Fashion Week, Senegal 2014 © Per-Anders Pettersson
Sudan-born Canadian model Aluad Anei smokes a cigarette backstage during a break between shows during the Fashion Week Joburg on Fitzgerald Square in Newtown, Johannesburg 2013 © Per-Anders Pettersson
Sudan-born Canadian model Aluad Anei smokes a cigarette backstage during a break between shows during the Fashion Week Joburg on Fitzgerald Square in Newtown, Johannesburg 2013 © Per-Anders Pettersson
Ivorian model Awa Sanoko wears a design by the New York-based Senegalese designer label Versaiilles at a fitting before a show in the Hôtel des Almadies during the Dakar Fashion Week, Senegal 2014 © Per-Anders Pettersson
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