TV host takes African fashion to social media in 100-day online blitz

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From left: Diana Opoti flaunts a Terrence Bray African dress, the TV host showcases South African designer Terrence Bray’s outfit, she wears a tunic from Peggy Onyango (Kenya) and red leisure pants from VIVO (Kenya), and in Ghanaian designer Christie Brown’s outfit. PHOTOS | COURTESY | MWIKALI LATI 

By Mwikali Lati

Over the past two months, Diana Opoti, fashion public relations consultant, executive producer and host of Designing Africa TV show, has been posting pictures of herself on social media wearing different African labels in her 100 days of African Fashion campaign.

Garnering more than 800 likes collectively on each photo on social media sites Facebook and Instagram as well as a dedicated website for the campaign, what started out as a way to uncover the real authentic African Fashion by Africa’s best designers (clothing and accessories) has instead focused global attention on the continent’s thriving industry.

The campaign started off with Ms Opoti combing through her wardrobe for clothes she has acquired over the years at fashion events in the continent.

Designers quickly discovered the campaign as a powerful platform to market their collections and sought their work to be profiled.

The campaign has challenged designers to look at other influencers beyond celebrities to grow their brands and act as informal ambassadors as well as aroused the need to conserve the authentic African fashion and promote “Made in Africa” brands. For featured labels, a lot of new traffic has been re-directed to their websites with some designers receiving direct inquiries on their fashion products.

The plan was to profile a designer, create the excitement and establish a digital forum where people can buy fashion products.

However, Ms Opoti says budding designers are slow to adopt online platforms for their business. Designers’ Internet platforms are not updated regularly with latest trends and they are not quick in responding to online queries and delivering products, she points out.

“That means the disappointment of the consumer falls back on the person who promoted it, me,” she says. “I need to find a way to control and manage that expectation from followers so that people can get the final product.”

Therefore, she launched a fashion PR and strategy consultancy to better represent fashion businesses looking to enter the Kenyan market.

She adds that for African fashion to thrive brands should be trendy at competitive prices. “I think I represent a certain market segment — the upwardly mobile and elegant lady in an official setting who wants to be stylish,” she says.

Ms Opoti says her deliberate choice of ordinary settings in day-to-day life to showcase clothes and other fashion accessories is the main reason why the campaign has been a success.

“It also does not distract the consumer. It is about the clothes — the fit. I deliberately select various looks, sometimes I balance between simple elegant look and other days feature edgier looks to keep the followers not only interested but also to showcase the variety African fashion labels offers,” she says.

Ms Opoti says the younger generation aged 22-28 are already very stylish and deliberately seek trendier apparel, whilst older followers aged over 30 seem to limit themselves to what is practical — items that can transition from formal to casual effortlessly.

The TV host sees the latter segment as an exciting future clientele for African fashion labels. Through this campaign, she hopes to stir things up and showcase the versatility of African fashion.

Looking at different fashion designers in the continent, Ms Opoti says South Africans are trend focused and market their collections at weekly fashion events then stock up in stores within three months. They have taken an advantage of two extreme seasons with corresponding fashion weeks, she says.