GLOBAL FASHION’S NEW BLOOMS

Sitting at fashion shows in Lagos,

I was fascinated by the imagination, the flamboyance and the details – of the hair! The weaving of thick locks and their creations as dramatic accessories opened for me a new Nigerian fashion world that was as much in the audience as on the runway. Then, on the outskirts of the sprawling, trafficsoaked city of Lagos, I found something even more exciting: young women earning money for the first time in their lives, as they moved from being teenage mothers to saving the dying art of batik. My next stop in Africa was Johannesburg, where, in a city soaked in sub-Saharan heat, Laduma Ngxokolo has built a powerful business for his Maxhosa knitwear. Fashion’s newest influences come from all over the planet, for example from India, where women are taking over the traditional male skill of embroidery, while the men swap needle and thread for working in high tech. Then there are the couples in South Korea who happily share clothes that were previously – at least in Europe and the United States – to be divided as appropriate for males or females. Gender fluidity that appeared naturally in Asia is now being taken up all over the world, and the fashion shows across China, Japan and Korea have become global, not just local.

Then there are designers in Middle Europe from Georgia, Hungary or Prague’s Czech region where there are fresh signs of growth. All seven countries that circle Austria, many of them once trapped behind Russia’s Iron Curtain, have flourished since the fall of the Berlin Wall 30 years ago. Significantly, without making a dramatic global statement, these designers are often reworking ideas from clothing that were part of their long history by giving them a fresh restart. Many of these countries and their eager young designers should look deeply into the lasting success of Italy, which retains the highest quality of fashion creation in the world. For surely success today lies in a meld of imagination, enthusiasm – and technique. From shoes and handbags to fantastical fabrics, manufacturing in Italy rules the fashion world.

The importance of the first decade of Vogue Talents is that it has always embraced designers of different origins and cultures. It has understood that the art of fashion is global – like any other aspect of art. Yet “Made in Italy” are three key words. For anyone from any country can design fashion. But Italy can make it too.