Nairobi Fashion Week is back for its seventh edition
Nairobi Fashion Week returns for its seventh edition with a new theme: Regenerative Fashion Renaissance:
Restoring Culture and Nature. This year’s event will spotlight fashion that reduces harm to the planet and actively works to restore it.
Fashion Week, which will take place from January 29 to February 1, 2025, at the Sarit Center, organizers promise it will be a groundbreaking celebration of creativity, sustainability, and innovation that will draw attention to the urgent need for a more responsible and circular fashion industry.
The theme marks a critical shift in the sustainability narrative. While traditional
practices aim to reduce harm, regenerative fashion goes a step further by focusing on the restoration and renewal of ecosystems, communities, and cultures through the fashion supply chain.
The theme will explore how designers, brands, and consumers can actively create a circular fashion economy that nourishes both people and the planet.
“The theme aligns with our vision to position Africa as a global leader in sustainability. We are working to create a platform for sustainable designers across Africa, rooted in the region and cultural values. Our goal is to promote organic fabrics and sustainable fashion, and we believe this platform will help us reclaim and celebrate our history,” says Brian Kihindas, Creative Director of Nairobi Fashion Week.
“Throughout history, African communities have embraced sustainable fashion by creating garments from locally sourced, natural materials and using traditional techniques that prioritize longevity, cultural significance, and environmental harmony,” he adds.
The textile and apparel industry is the world’s third-largest manufacturing sector, generating $2.4 trillion in revenue in 2019.
More than 300 million people worldwide are employed along the entire value chain, including fiber and textile producers, designers, manufacturers, retailers, and content providers.
The industry has experienced rapid growth, with production doubling since 2000, and people now consume 60 percent more clothing than they did 15 years ago. If current consumption patterns continue, apparel use could increase by more than
more than 60 percent between 2019 and 2029.
Unfortunately, even with these statistics showing the importance of the sector, the fashion industry is a major contributor to textile waste and carbon emissions, with billions lost each year due to a lack of recycling. It is estimated that the sector produces around 92 million tons of textile waste each year, the equivalent of a garbage truck full of clothes being dumped every second.
The industry is also responsible for around 10% of global carbon emissions, which is more than all international flights and ocean shipping combined. When it comes to the impact of used clothing, or mitumbas, it is estimated that in recent years over 300 million items of damaged or unsaleable clothing made of synthetic – or plastic – fibers have been exported annually to Kenya, where they end up dumped, landfilled or incinerated, exacerbating the plastic pollution crisis.
The global fashion industry contributes to significant environmental challenges, so the urgency of regenerative fashion has never been greater.
“The theme aligns with our vision to position Africa as a global leader in sustainability.
Nairobi Fashion Week 2025 will feature designers who are leading a change in this, pushing boundaries to make recycling and upcycling integral parts of fashion production and consumption.
“Recycling in fashion isn’t just about turning old clothes into new garments. It’s about creating a system where fashion becomes a regenerative force, where nothing goes to waste and everything has a second life,” says Lisa Kibutu, Sponsor and Production Lead at NFW.