Jacqueline Shaw is a professional Fashion Designer by trade with a background working and designing for fashion companies PUMA, Russell Athletic, Ocean Pacific, Fila, Chilli Pepper in London to name a few, and Babylon Princesse (Talent in Shanghai) in China. An eco-entrepreneur, owner of ethical designer wedding dress company Latibeau Ltd and with a large interest in Africa’s fashion and textile industry, ethical fashion, sustainability and even more for international development through trade.
Jacqueline holds a Ba (Hons) degree in Fashion from the Surrey Institute of Art and Design and a Masters Degree in Ethical Fashion. She has worked with the Ethical Fashion Forum representing African businesses at their Source Expo events and has written for the West Africa Trade Hub/USAid website and even for Dazed and Confused magazine whilst on placement with them during her BA (Hons) degree.
Jacqueline forged Africa Fashion Guide with the focus to promote the African fashion and textile industry to the greater global textile industry and thus to create links with African fashion businesses and the UK and EU fashion retail and consumer markets.
Kindly introduce yourself
I’m Jacqueline Shaw and I’m the founding director of Africa Fashion Guide, I’m a professional fashion designer who has been working in the industry for about 15 years and have been working internationally in China, England, Germany and Turkey for fashion companies as a fashion designer. I decided to set up African Fashion Guide in 2011 after I looked at the African textile market for about 2 years while doing my masters in Ethical fashion, currently, I have been focusing on Africa Fashion Guide, developing and building the business, we turn 5 this year and we have been going strong, we also have few things planned for the next 6 months/one year.
Have you ever worked in Africa?
When I was doing my masters degree, I set up a clothing line, because I was studying the African textile industry – supply chain and I wanted to test it out; my clothing label was made in Africa by Africans and for Africans, it was a mix of African fabric mixed with other fabrics, I made some in Kenyan with organic cotton locally made in a factory in Nairobi, I also made some products in Ghana working with local tailors and batik artists in and outside of Accra, so I have also worked with producers in African and UK and to see how things work with import and export and so I have tested that out just to see what it looks like, now I help other companies who want to do to similar businesses because I have got great contacts in Africa. So I have in fact worked in Africa.
What do you currently do?
Currently focused on Africa Fashion Guide, I had been working in the industry for a while and I left my previous job last year to focus solely on Africa Fashion Guide projects.
How long have you been in this field?
Fifteen years in fashion generally, and 7 years in African Fashion, that was when I had just started to research on the subject matter.
Kindly tell us about your journey so far in this sector?
When I started, I wanted to go to Africa because I was looking at my own background and just working as a designer, I started to notice by just looking at blogs that there was something happening in Africa and I wanted to make a difference and give it a platform, I wanted it have its own voice and that is which is why I created Africa Fashion Guide to be that voice.
What does Africa Fashion Guide do?
We promote and support the full supply chain of Africa’s textile and fashion industry with a sustainable focus so that means looking at the whole industry from campaigns, on catwalks, cotton industry, lost value in export etc, we are launching business workshop online, we have yearly international conferences and seminars along with university workshops. We also do consultancy work for companies in the fashion industry, it could be sourcing, project management, school competitions etc.
What does Sustainable Fashion mean to you?
Sustainable fashion is key to the world because there are so many campaigns going around now – for example, the big thing about the oceans and the amount of waste we are throwing into them and destroying livelihood under water and with fashion is dealing with that by developing textiles made from plastic.
Without sustainable fashion, we would keep taking resources from the planet and it would get exhausted and we have come to the point where we need clothes and we now have to be clever about how we make these clothes, for me, it is such a big issue in the industry right now but I also believe it is also a way of creating sustainable business and bringing trade and income to developing countries, in the UK alone, the fashion industry is worth 3 billion and the world about 1.2 trillion worldwide and so it is a quite money driven industry, but the question is- how can we do this responsibly ? And when I noticed that nothing was happening in Africa, I wanted to be part of the sustainable story that would be linked to Africa and even within that was maintaining the African tradition and not just cheap, fast fashion.
How achievable is Sustainable Fashion in Africa?
I think it is very achievable. In regards to textile technology in Africa, we have a challenge there so we may not be quick in that area. But the way we do our things already now and from history, I think it is quite sustainable, the way people look after things, handing fashion down from generation to generation and even with the second-hand clothing though it has its pros and cons, it is debatable and with a lot of fashion pieces thrown away from the west and with Africa preventing them from going to the land mines, there is an aspect of reusing which is sustainable
Are your interests solely in Sustainable Fashion?
Sustainable Fashion is the key thing for me; I created African Fashion Guide through my masters in Ethical Fashion, so this is a key aspect of what we do – we are grounded on organic, fair trade and sustainability in fashion, they are all that we promote with the companies we work with, though sometimes, these companies could work with our designs without necessarily using sustainable materials but they could be for sustainable lives and sustainable communities, as long it is sustainability being achieved via the triple bottom line – people, planet and profits, thus all of these have to be taken into consideration
You have a strong online presence for Sustainable Fashion, how were you able to achieve this?
I think it was timing, when I launched AFG, there were only few blogs at the time and those blogs were focused more on cat walks, they were like the Vogues ad style.com of Africa at that time and they were looking at fashion and telling stories in different narratives, but we were focused on the work done behind the scenes, because for me, that was the most important part of the work, you cannot have a fashion industry if you do not have a production line that sources materials and involves people. This is our point of difference and this is what we are sticking to.
Kindly tell us about your book – Fashion Africa
I self-published Fashion Africa in 2011 when I launched the website and the conference, it was re-launched in 2014 with publisher Jacaranda books, I just wanted to create something beautiful, I had worked in the library as a student when I had my fist degree and I read a lot on African books and culture and I didn’t think the books reflected modern day Africa and I wanted to create a book that showcased African industry today and I collated designers with sustainable stories. It is a very beautiful book, I will launch two more books in the next two years.
There are a lot of false claims by some African Designers as Sustainable Fashion brands, what are the best ways to determine a truly sustainable brand?
A lot of people say this and I think it is because there is an association between Africa and sustainable fashion as you have a lot of things which are handmade or made with traditional skills (as it is in India too). I however do not think it is smart to do this, I think it is only a marketing ploy. To be a sustainable brand, you have to be sustaining something, whether you are working with materials that can be recycled, biodegradable or not using materials grown with harmful pesticides etc or you are working with communities for production, helping to provide them with water or jobs, it is not just about buying a t-shirt made from organic cotton, I feel people need to consider the whole story and supply chain of what they are doing to make sure that they fit under the umbrella, so they do not just use it because it sounds great. That is just not the way to do things.
What are your favourite sustainable Fashion brands?
I do love Stella McCartney for what she stands for and by using leather products, she has made it part of her ethos to be sustainable and she has a strong story. Christopher Rayblan does some good stuff with his recycled story. In Africa, I like Chichiya – who uses organic cotton. My book has a lot of them too!
What are your other interests?
I sing in my local choir, I love dancing afrobeat and latin dances – maringe, batete and salsa, I also love to run and keep fit and I love to travel, I am actually launching on a travel blog –“’Afro and the suitcase” where I would put all my travel experiences and tips on, that would launch this year.
What are your favourite SDGs?
I think they are all relevant but, I have a huge heart for women mainly because they form a huge part of the fashion and textile industry and they are the ones who feed their homes and sending her kids to school.
So Gender Equality (Goal 5) is my main SDG. I also like Goal 9 – Industry and Innovation and Goal 6 – Clean water and Sanitation, clean water because it is a huge part of the fashion industry and it is the key for life and also because sanitation is general issue in Africa. I think it should come free in life and we take water supply for granted in these parts of life.
What is your advice for young people interested in Sustainable Fashion in Africa
I would say – network, learn from the people in the field and be in Africa and learn from what it is people are doing in Africa, know what is wanted or needed and educate yourself. I attended and spoke at several events and networked a lot and this has helped in inviting some of these people to my own conference, they know that I am consistent and passionate about this work.
How can people find out more about your work?
Twitter: twitter.com/africafashguide
Instagram: instagram.com/AfricaFashionGuide
Website: http://www.fashionafricaconference.com/
Facebook: facebook.com/AfricaFashionGuide