Post from 1966 Magazine ·
Rosario Dawson and Fashion Come Together in Africa
Actress Rosario Dawson has teamed up with her longtime friend Abrima Erwiah to form Studio One Eighty Nine. The platform was produced to help creative types from all backgrounds such as designers and photographers from various African countries to promote their services and products.
They also created their own fashion line called Fashion Rising which not only hires Africans but trains them in fashion schools and gives them valuable marketing feedback. Knowing that seven of the 10 fastest growing economies in the world are in Africa, it just made since to help Africa carve out a place of its own in the fashion world.
It’s well known that many designers go to Africa to come up with African inspired themes but then the clothing is manufactured in someplace like China, that obviously doesn’t benefit Africans. Therefore Dawson and Erwiah see the practicality of investing in a business model that allows a nation such as Congo to design and manufacture goods within its own borders, sparking economic growth in the country.
The business partners are seeking to encourage young Africans to pursue careers in fashion and follow their dreams and hopefully someday soon, that fashionable scarf you are wearing will have been made in not in Japan or France but in Liberia or Ghana.
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