Beyoncé, Gwen Stefani, Kelis, Rihanna and actress Thandie Newton have all worn designs from the region. African-led e-commerce fashion platforms are on the rise. <br /><br />Pictured: Designs by Maki Oh, made in Nigeria and Needle+Thread, made in Kenya.
Beyoncé, Gwen Stefani, Kelis, Rihanna and actress Thandie Newton have all worn designs from the region. African-led e-commerce fashion platforms are on the rise.

Pictured: Designs by Maki Oh, made in Nigeria and Needle+Thread, made in Kenya.
Courtesy Oxosi
Platforms such as OXOSI, Dress Me Outlet and ONYCHEK say they aim to make African fashion global. <br /><br />Pictured: South Africa's Laduma Ngxokolo's collection, the 31-year-old designer behind MaXhosa, at Lagos Fashion & Design Week 2016.
Platforms such as OXOSI, Dress Me Outlet and ONYCHEK say they aim to make African fashion global.

Pictured: South Africa's Laduma Ngxokolo's collection, the 31-year-old designer behind MaXhosa, at Lagos Fashion & Design Week 2016.
Courtesy Oxosi
"We are trying to make fashion made in Africa available to everybody," says Chekwas Okafor, founder of ONYCHEK. The 27-year-old left a job as a health and safety manager to launch the online retail store. <br /><br />Pictured: Designs by Ghana's Christie Brown and Kenya-based Adele Dejak.
"We are trying to make fashion made in Africa available to everybody," says Chekwas Okafor, founder of ONYCHEK. The 27-year-old left a job as a health and safety manager to launch the online retail store.

Pictured: Designs by Ghana's Christie Brown and Kenya-based Adele Dejak.
Courtesy ONYCHEK
There's growing interest in African fashion believes Okafor. "African Americans are excited about supporting African brands and then there are those consumers who are just excited about ethical and sustainable fashion. Those are our customer base," he adds. <br /><br />Pictured: Designs by MaXhosa which reinterprets traditional beadwork patterns within Xhosa culture in South Africa.
There's growing interest in African fashion believes Okafor. "African Americans are excited about supporting African brands and then there are those consumers who are just excited about ethical and sustainable fashion. Those are our customer base," he adds.

Pictured: Designs by MaXhosa which reinterprets traditional beadwork patterns within Xhosa culture in South Africa.
Courtesy Onychek
The Nigeria born, US raised founders behind OXOSI, Akin Adebowale and Kolade Adeyemo, aim to connect emerging brands from the continent with global consumers especially those who value the heritage behind designs. <br /><br />"Our approach is in getting the African stories out there," says the site's CEO Kwesi Blair. "One thing we want associated with OXOSI is a content strategy that's very good."<br /><br />Pictured: Backstage at Lagos Fashion & Design Week 2016.
The Nigeria born, US raised founders behind OXOSI, Akin Adebowale and Kolade Adeyemo, aim to connect emerging brands from the continent with global consumers especially those who value the heritage behind designs.

"Our approach is in getting the African stories out there," says the site's CEO Kwesi Blair. "One thing we want associated with OXOSI is a content strategy that's very good."

Pictured: Backstage at Lagos Fashion & Design Week 2016.
Courtesy Oxosi
The resulting mix of e-commerce and curated editorial on culture within the continent range from Nigeria's skateboarding scene to Ndebele designs in southern Africa all packaged using hashtags such as #VivaLagos or #VivaAfrica. <br /><br />Its first show at New York Fashion Week this year in February showcased Amaka Osakwe's Maki Oh winter/fall collection. The Nigerian designer has been worn by former first lady Michelle Obama and is a known favorite of celebrities like Solange Knowles. <br /><br />Pictured: Models in Maki Oh's SS17 collection at Lagos Fashion & Design Week 2016.
The resulting mix of e-commerce and curated editorial on culture within the continent range from Nigeria's skateboarding scene to Ndebele designs in southern Africa all packaged using hashtags such as #VivaLagos or #VivaAfrica.

Its first show at New York Fashion Week this year in February showcased Amaka Osakwe's Maki Oh winter/fall collection. The Nigerian designer has been worn by former first lady Michelle Obama and is a known favorite of celebrities like Solange Knowles.

Pictured: Models in Maki Oh's SS17 collection at Lagos Fashion & Design Week 2016.
Courtesy Oxosi
For both companies Nigeria is a key market for expansion. The country has the largest online apparel market in Africa, expected to grow from an estimated $104m in 2014 to nearly $1.1bn in 2019 according to research by Euromonitor International. <br /><br />Nigeria's consumers spent $400 billion in 2014 estimates McKinsey Global Institute and despite the economic slowdown across the continent, it predicts that Africans will be buying $75 billion worth of goods online by 2025. <br /><br />Pictured: South Africa based Chu Suwannapha launched his second collection 'Make Art Not War' at South Africa Menswear Fashion Week in 2016.
For both companies Nigeria is a key market for expansion. The country has the largest online apparel market in Africa, expected to grow from an estimated $104m in 2014 to nearly $1.1bn in 2019 according to research by Euromonitor International.

Nigeria's consumers spent $400 billion in 2014 estimates McKinsey Global Institute and despite the economic slowdown across the continent, it predicts that Africans will be buying $75 billion worth of goods online by 2025.

Pictured: South Africa based Chu Suwannapha launched his second collection 'Make Art Not War' at South Africa Menswear Fashion Week in 2016.
Courtesy Oxosi
Nigerian Olatorera Oniru is the founder of Dress Me Outlet, a site she left a corporate career in banking and tech to set up. Based in Lagos, the site sells around 85 to 95 percent of its fashion products to Nigerians. <br /><br />"Africa currently does not have a 1% share in the global fashion industry GDP which I think is very poor considering the fact that the majority of fashion's natural resources come from the continent, from gold to diamond to cotton even leather so it's only right that we have a share," says 30-year-old Oniru. <br /><br />Pictured: Dress Me Outlet founder Olatorera Oniru.
Nigerian Olatorera Oniru is the founder of Dress Me Outlet, a site she left a corporate career in banking and tech to set up. Based in Lagos, the site sells around 85 to 95 percent of its fashion products to Nigerians.

"Africa currently does not have a 1% share in the global fashion industry GDP which I think is very poor considering the fact that the majority of fashion's natural resources come from the continent, from gold to diamond to cotton even leather so it's only right that we have a share," says 30-year-old Oniru.

Pictured: Dress Me Outlet founder Olatorera Oniru.
Courtesy Dress Me Outlet
The rate of growth for Africa's household consumption was down from 5.2 percent in 2010 to 3.9 percent in 2015. Nonetheless, African consumerism was the fastest growing of any region except emerging Asia according to McKinsey Global Institute.<br /><br />Pictured: South Africa brand Kisua, an online clothing retailer launched by Ghanaian entrepreneur Samuel Mensah.
The rate of growth for Africa's household consumption was down from 5.2 percent in 2010 to 3.9 percent in 2015. Nonetheless, African consumerism was the fastest growing of any region except emerging Asia according to McKinsey Global Institute.

Pictured: South Africa brand Kisua, an online clothing retailer launched by Ghanaian entrepreneur Samuel Mensah.
Courtesy Kisua
In 2014, when Beyoncé was spotted wearing a skirt and jacket from South African brand Kisua, it sold out in days. The musician's stylist had come across the brand online.<br /><br />The e-commerce platform sells its own clothes and collaborates with other designers to create collections for its label. It was inspired from Ghana-born Samuel Mensah's travels around the continent as an economist.
In 2014, when Beyoncé was spotted wearing a skirt and jacket from South African brand Kisua, it sold out in days. The musician's stylist had come across the brand online.

The e-commerce platform sells its own clothes and collaborates with other designers to create collections for its label. It was inspired from Ghana-born Samuel Mensah's travels around the continent as an economist.
Courtesy Kisua
"We launched in the US and UK first and then there was a bit of an uproar in South Africa that although we had operations here we didn't have products here," says Mensah. <br /><br />Expanding out into South Africa where it is based, the site has other African markets earmarked including Ghana and Nigeria. It's also considering physical stores, "which is what's happening internationally anyway in retail even Amazon is opening physical stores now," says Mensah. Currently it has one in Johannesburg's luxury Hyde Park Corner.<br /><br />As companies hope to sell trans-boundary within Africa, they are finding ways around Africa's infrastructure issues and opening up dedicated distribution centers within countries. <br />Pictured: South African model Lulama Mlambo poses while wearing clothes made by Kisua.com in Johannesburg.
"We launched in the US and UK first and then there was a bit of an uproar in South Africa that although we had operations here we didn't have products here," says Mensah.

Expanding out into South Africa where it is based, the site has other African markets earmarked including Ghana and Nigeria. It's also considering physical stores, "which is what's happening internationally anyway in retail even Amazon is opening physical stores now," says Mensah. Currently it has one in Johannesburg's luxury Hyde Park Corner.

As companies hope to sell trans-boundary within Africa, they are finding ways around Africa's infrastructure issues and opening up dedicated distribution centers within countries.
Pictured: South African model Lulama Mlambo poses while wearing clothes made by Kisua.com in Johannesburg.
Courtesy Kisua
"Because of infrastructural challenges couriering on the continent can be quite expensive so it is sometimes discouraging for a customer in Nigeria or Ghana to buy from an online store in South Africa and vice versa just because of the cost of shipping," says Mensah. <br /><br />Pictured: KISUA Spring/Summer 17 collection on YOOX as part of the online retailer's YOOXYGEN ethical fashion program.
"Because of infrastructural challenges couriering on the continent can be quite expensive so it is sometimes discouraging for a customer in Nigeria or Ghana to buy from an online store in South Africa and vice versa just because of the cost of shipping," says Mensah.

Pictured: KISUA Spring/Summer 17 collection on YOOX as part of the online retailer's YOOXYGEN ethical fashion program.
Courtesy Marijke Willems/Kisua
"This is changing there is investment that is happening across the fashion supply chain," says Mensah. "We're doing that by putting systems in place and bringing people with the right expertise in place."<br /><br />The company's advisory board has some of fashion's heavyweights including Savile Row tailor Ozwald Boateng who is of Ghanaian descent and Lagos Fashion and Design Week founder Omoyemi Akerele. <br /><br />Pictured: Entrepreneur Samuel Mensah.
"This is changing there is investment that is happening across the fashion supply chain," says Mensah. "We're doing that by putting systems in place and bringing people with the right expertise in place."

The company's advisory board has some of fashion's heavyweights including Savile Row tailor Ozwald Boateng who is of Ghanaian descent and Lagos Fashion and Design Week founder Omoyemi Akerele.

Pictured: Entrepreneur Samuel Mensah.
Courtesy Samuel Mensah