Designers Ready for Kampala-Kigali Fashion Week

The long-awaited Kigali International Fashion Week is back and will take place in Kampala this year after being postponed last year owing to the Ebola crisis in Uganda. The highly-anticipated fashion extravaganza dubbed Kampala-Kigali Fashion Week (KKFW) is scheduled for today February 24, at Pearl of Africa Hotel.

The last time the fashion show happened was in London back in January 2020, and after taking a forced hiatus due to the Covid-19 and Ebola outbreak in Uganda, it is now back with a bang with organisers taking it to Kampala.

The KKFW aims at highlighting the emergence of local designers and fashion houses that create wonderful fashion clothes of an international standard as well as enable the youth of both countries and promote the fashion industry which has great potential for employment and revenue for the respective countries.

The Kampala–Kigali Fashion Week is focused on promoting unity, love, business development and mostly the creative industry in both countries. It is a great opportunity to promote collaboration between the youth of Uganda and Rwanda using fashion as a foundation,” fashion event curator John Munyeshuri told reporters

After Kampala, the event will shift to Ethiopia in May, Tokyo, Japan in September before taking it to Washington, United States in November.

“It’s Kigali-Kampala Fashion Week just like we could have Kigali-Addis Ababa Fashion Week, Kigali-Tokyo Fashion Week or Kigali-DC Fashion Week,” he said.

The event will identify the multitudes of little known local designers and models will highlight trueness, authenticity, purpose, tapping into raw talent and converting it into global brands.

Both Kampala and Kigali had previously held individual fashion weeks in the past but this year will see both countries collaborate to produce a combined event to be held in Kampala, Uganda.

The event will allow designers from both Rwanda and Uganda to showcase their work. All invitees are primarily fashion-based, with suitable platforms to work with and expand their network within the fashion industry.

The Kigali International Fashion Week had previously been held in London, United Kingdom, Tokyo in Japan, New York in the United States, Switzerland, Holland, Germany and Belgium.