AFR Gala Fashion & Awards Night
The Gala Fashion & Awards Night
Africa Celebrates 2023 will culminate into a Gala Fashion & Awards Night. This fashion event will be the 7th edition of the Africa Fashion Reception (AFR) in Addis Ababa. The event will be presenting fashion designers from all over Africa. Only 1 designer is nominated to represent each country. Guests will be welcomed through a red-carpet cocktails’ arrival. Special recognition awards will be bestowed on deserving Africans both on the continent and in the diaspora. These are Africans who have contributed to the advancement of the continent in one way or the other.
Dress Code: Dress Africa
As has always been the tradition of the AFR since inception in 2013, the dress code for guests is ‘glamorously African clothes. This is an opportunity for all guests attending the AFR to show off the various dress cultures from across Africa. For non-Africans or friends of Africa intending to attend, they too can dress Africa by shopping for African clothes during the 2 days exhibition preceding the gala event by African designers from across the continent
More on Africa Fashion Reception
This is the gala fashion event for Africa Celebrates. The Africa Fashion Reception (AFR) is a Pan African initiative which has been organized annually with the African Union since 2014. It brings together Fashion Designers & Entrepreneurs, Models, Ambassadors, Ministers and media from all over Africa, in a celebration of cultural diversity expressed through the artistic fashion discipline with the proud theme ‘Africa is the New Inspiration for Global Fashion’.
Following the introduction of Africa Celebrates in 2021, AFR became the Gala Fashion & Awards Night of Africa Celebrates
The Africa Fashion Reception is aimed at achieving the following objectives using the creative industry of fashion as a vehicle:
- To build bridges by creating free trade and partnerships among fashion practitioners throughout the African continent in cognizance of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)
- To expand the potential power of fashion as a tool of fighting poverty in Africa by creating wealth through the empowerment of women and youths in the various fashion vocations through training, capacity building schemes, workshops and setting up of medium/small scale businesses thereby supporting the objectives of Agenda 2063 and the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.
- To bring about self-reliance as this initiative will create millions of jobs across the continent for Dressmakers, Creative Directors, Textile designers, Models, Cutters, Pressers, Fashion Photographers & Writers, Hair Stylists, Make-up Artists etc
Africa Celebrates’ Sustainable and Social Responsibility Projects Fashion for Peace & Development
The fashion component of Africa Celebrates has been designed to empower women and youths in post conflict areas across Africa. It is Fashion for Peace & Development. The major goal of Fashion for Peace & development is to expand the potential power of fashion as a tool to fight poverty in post war torn countries across Africa. This is by creating wealth for displaced women and youths through training and capacity building in the various fashion vocations after which small-scale businesses will be set up for the beneficiaries.