Lagos Fashion Week Presents Africa's First Manifesto for a Regenerative Fashion Industry

 

2025 Earthshot Prize Winner, Lagos Fashion Week launched ‘The Blueprint for a Regenerative Fashion Future’, the manifesto of the African Fashion Coalition (or ‘The Manifesto’), an African Fashion Compact II in partnership with The Earthshot Prize during London Climate Action Week. It positions Africa as a leader in shaping a regenerative, inclusive, and climate-responsive future for fashion.

(L-R) Sunny Dolat, NEST Collective; Jackie May, Twyg; Omoyemi Akerele, Lagos Fashion Week; Adama Ndiaye, Dakar Fashion Week; Renee Neblett, Kokrobitey Institute; Sammy Oteng, The Or Foundation; and Simone Smit, The Earthshot Prize, at the African Fashion Compact II in London on June 22, 2026. The African Fashion Coalition leaders gathered during London Climate Action Week to launch ‘The Blueprint for a Regenerative Fashion Future’ manifesto.

At a time when the global fashion industry faces growing pressure to address climate change, waste, inequality, and unsustainable production systems, the Manifesto offers a distinctly African perspective rooted in centuries of knowledge, craftsmanship, circularity, and community-led innovation, showing how these can shape a more regenerative and resilient fashion future. At the heart of the Manifesto is a call for ownership and value. For generations, Africa has supplied the materials, craftsmanship and creativity that shape global fashion while capturing little of the value it helps create. Today, Africa exports approximately US$15 billion of raw textiles each year, yet imports more than US$23 billion of finished clothing and footwear. The Manifesto argues that this is not a gap in talent, but a gap in ownership which needs to be filled.  The Manifesto has been developed following a series of convenings, workshops, consultations, and stakeholder engagements led by Lagos Fashion Week and The Earthshot Prize. It reflects the collective thinking of the African Fashion Coalition, a community of African fashion leaders, sustainability advocates, researchers, educators, artisans, and entrepreneurs. Building on the Manifesto Lab convened in April 2026, it was further refined through ongoing consultation and collaboration across the ecosystem, resulting in a shared framework for a sustainable fashion future.

Contributors to the Manifesto Lab included Omoyemi Akerele, Founder and Executive Director of Lagos Fashion Week; Simone Smit, Director of Africa at The Earthshot Prize; Adama Paris, Founder of Dakar Fashion Week; Mahlet Teklemariam, Founder of Hub of Africa Fashion Week; Liz Ricketts, Founder of The OR Foundation; Renee Neblett, Founder of Kokrobitey Institute; and Sunny Dolat, Researcher and Sustainable Curator at The Nest Collective. The Manifesto recognises that many of the principles now being championed as solutions for a regenerative fashion future, including repair, reuse, stewardship, local production, resource efficiency, and intergenerational knowledge transfer, have long existed across African fashion systems and cultural practices. It is structured around ten interconnected pillars spanning cultural heritage, circularity, inclusive prosperity, intellectual property protection, waste justice, local manufacturing, regenerative innovation, market access, infrastructure development and conscious consumption. These pillars provide a framework for strengthening the systems, partnerships, and investments needed to support a more regenerative, inclusive, and resilient fashion future across the continent.

Commenting on the launch, Omoyemi Akerele, Founder and Executive Director of Lagos Fashion Week, a 2025 Winner of The Earthshot Prize in the Build a Waste Free World category, said: “The Blueprint for a Regenerative Fashion Future reflects a shared vision which is rooted in African realities.  For generations, Africa has supplied the materials, craftsmanship, and creativity that shape global fashion while capturing little of the value it helps create. The resources are ours. The value is theirs. We are celebrated as a source of inspiration and shut out of the industry we inspire. The Manifesto frames this not as a gap in talent but as a gap in ownership, and calls for the investment, infrastructure, and equitable share of value needed to keep the worth of African ideas, materials, labour, and culture on the continent. Most importantly, it is a commitment to collective action and to shaping what comes next.”

Simone Smit, Director of Africa, The Earthshot Prize, said: “Africa is not just participating in the global environmental movement, it’s leading it. And Earthshot solutions are right at the heart of it. The role played by Lagos Fashion Week in shaping the Manifesto, in collaboration with other leaders, has demonstrated that the most impactful solutions are those that combine innovation with local knowledge and the people closest to the challenge.”

The Blueprint for a Regenerative Fashion Future is open for endorsement. Individuals and organisations across the fashion ecosystem are invited to read and sign the manifesto at www.lagosfashionweek.com, and to join the coalition in carrying it from intention to adoption.

Lagos Fashion Week is a leading platform for African fashion dedicated to strengthening the continent’s fashion ecosystem through business development, sustainability initiatives, capacity building, and market access opportunities. Through year round programmes, strategic partnerships, and industry convenings, Lagos Fashion Week champions African creativity while driving dialogue and action around the future of fashion. Lagos Fashion Week was announced as a Winner for The Earthshot Prize in the Build a Waste-Free World category in 2025. Founded by HRH Prince William and incubated in The Royal Foundation in 2020 for a year before becoming an independent organisation, The Earthshot Prize is the world’s most prestigious and impactful award designed to identify, back and celebrate groundbreaking leadership in environmental action.