Kisua, a new e-commerce site promoting African fashion launched this month, providing customers worldwide with the opportunity to buy mid-priced pieces from African designers. 

Headed up by founder and CEO Samuel Mensah with support from Ozwald Boateng, the site teams African designers, both emerging and established, with creative director Danica Lepen and an in-house design team to create a series of collaborative lines. 

The resulting collections are contemporary, modern and of-the-moment yet distinct and quite unlike anything you’ll find for a similar price on the high street (a dress costs around £120, for example). 

‘African fashion is colourful and passionate; we fuse traditional elements with a modern vision and know-how,’ explains Lepen. ‘It’s really exciting because nothing like this has been done before … What we’re doing is showing people that African fashion is wearable and globally relevant. We want to break the mould – African design is not just wax patterns and beading.’

The site will also have an editorial bent, highlighting music and the arts from across Africa.