In Brief
- The unique Heineken® design project targeted talented emerging designers, challenging them to explore the creation of contemporary prints and re-define hospitality fashion garments.
- 10 Shortlisted finalists benefited from a 3 day knowledge exchange workshop in Nairobi led by Amsterdam design house, LEW
- Following the completion of the workshop designer(s) were selected to travel to Amsterdam to co create a 14 piece collection which was showcased in Nigeria at the Lagos Fashion and Design Week in October 2017
Heineken® is determined to take arts to another level. The giant Dutch brewer two months ago opened entry to an exciting global design project that invited emerging designers from Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania to become part of a creative journey to collaborate on, conceive and produce a “hospitality range” for its global range.
The “Africa Inspired Fashion Challenge” was the region’s first design initiative that sought to extend Heineken’s commitment to innovation and by going beyond traditional hospitality fashion design and focusing on the consumer experience in a bar.
The project also sought to generate fashion forward collections for their global hospitality range through an “open innovation” process that saw Heineken co-creating with emerging creative talent and their partner design studio
Njeri Mburu, Heineken’s Brand Manager for East Africa was ecstatic about the project. “There is something magical about bringing an idea to life. We wanted to give visionary talented designers and budding creative on the continent the chance to show the world what contemporary African inspiration looks like. We were looking for emerging talent with a fashion forward outlook to design”
Selected finalists had the opportunity to work with some of the world’s epic design teams and bring these experiences to the next generation of talented designers,” explained Uche Unigwe, General Manager at Heineken East Africa Import Company Limited.
Branding is essential to the success of any company, which is why Heineken decided to challenge designers who believe they got what it takes to push their creative talents further and essentially ‘Open their World’ to exciting new opportunities.
Designers needed to be inspired to create masterpieces for their collection. Heineken provided finalists with guidance, support and the company’s full complement of branding solutions – from African prints, clothing materials.
“We acknowledge that fashion is a big driver of cultural narratives and we feel it vital that the brand incorporates the contemporary interpretations of local design stories for global audiences. We are excited to see how designers integrate our unique branding solutions into their collection by incorporating a much-needed “local voice” Njeri Mburu concluded
The “African Print Fashion” Workshops in Nairobi was a three -day event, where contestants presented their design entries to a panel of judges and winners were announced in an awards ceremony for the event’s two categories: FABRIC & DESIGN,
The entries were open from 21st August, with a selected 10 finalists invited for a workshop in Nairobi on 5th – 7th September 2017 and Winner announced on 8th September 2017.
Only ten Designers from East Africa were Shortlisted for the Three day training session in Nairobi in which the final winner’s’ was selected by Judges.
The judging panel includes key fashion industry players names; Omoyemi Akerele, Founder of Lagos Fashion and Design Week (Nigeria), International model Ajuma Nasenyana (Kenya) , Stylist and key fashion player Rio Paul ( Tanazania) and Award winnng designer and founder of Kampala Fashion Week, Gloria Wavamunno (Uganda)
Heineken worked with fashion publicist Diana Opoti supported the event across the three regions and lent the project vital advisory role.
