Why Amira Rasool is winning where others have failed
In the struggle to globalize African fashion, The Folklore gives us hope
If spectators were Nollywood directors, they’ll tell you the story of how someone has tied the destiny of any company trying to take ‘African fashion’ to the global market. I say this because of all the platforms that have emerged with a similar mission to make ‘African fashion’ accessible globally, almost 80% have failed.
When I make reference to African fashion, I precisely mean designers on the continent who are making things locally, referencing their personal experiences and encounters, then translating those ideas and concepts into wearable designs. It’s important to point this out because there are multiple cases of luxury brands who have leeched on African ‘aesthetics’ for commercial gain, without partnering with local artisans or creatives and without the profits trickling down to serve or improve the ecosystem on the continent.
But I digress.
In recent times, an outlier seems to have emerged.
Amira Rasool, the fashion journalist and founder/CEO of The Folklore, an online concept store that’s promoting high-end and emerging designer brands from Africa and the diaspora.
In less than 3 years since she launched, she has been able to expand from having only 19 designers under The Folklore’s umbrella to exactly 43 brands from over a dozen countries including Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, Morocco and Cote D’Ivoire.
In November 2020, she secured a partnership with FarFetch — a luxury e-commerce platform — to introduce a limited quantity of more than 60 styles (including womenswear, menswear, jewellery and bags) from 10 designers across Africa.
Two months ago, The Folklore unveiled a new category; beauty. Stating that customers can now shop the best skincare, bath and beauty, and nail products from luxury beauty brands from Africa and the diaspora on their website.
On January 25th, Amira announced via her Instagram page, that The Folklore is now officially a Techstars-backed company. Techstars is an American seed accelerator/investment group that essentially supports early-stage companies through mentorship and investment.
Amira is said to have launched The Folklore when she was 22. She doesn’t have two heads.
Getting off the ground.
Before The Folklore, there were many others. Oxosi for example, if I were to name one of the most promising, was named by Vogue as “African Fashion’s answer to Moda Operandi.”
Despite the growing demand for African-made collections, most of them never really took off. And the reason why will largely remain subject to speculation.
But clearly, The Folklore is doing something right.
When you read about the work the founder, Ms Rasool, has done so far, it becomes evident that The Folklore is driven by a genuine interest in matters concerning African creatives and a strong commitment towards seeing these brands succeed.
Where many might have concerned themselves with aesthetics, Ms Rasool chose to focus on turning visibility into sales and doing so through storytelling.
It’s not clout chasing or trend-hopping.
If you ask her about the conception of The Folklore, she’ll tell you about how she applied for a Master’s program in African Studies at the University of Cape Town. Then while at it, flew around Africa, met with designers to learn what they needed from an e-commerce platform and what was necessary to distribute their products to luxury customers around the world. It was this research she credits as the catalyst for The Folklore.
The Struggle.
It goes without saying that building a company like this comes with its own struggles. It’s never as rosy as the media paints it to be.
When COVID-19 hit, Ms Rasool was on the verge of raising her pre-seed round. Needless to say, that didn’t happen and she had to restructure both her finances and business model. She moved her entire inventory from New York to her home in New Jersey and had to keep running on the barest minimum. Then unlike what you might typically expect to hear from a struggling company, she reached out to the 30-plus designer brands The Folklore works with to check in on how they were doing, how the pandemic affected their business and what she could do to help.
A support system for Black/African brands.
Over the course of the pandemic, The Folklore shifted from ‘being just an e-commerce channel to being a source of support almost immediately’. Ms Rasool hosted a virtual fashion conference with a couple of designers and fashion editors from Condé Nast to raise funds for African-based brands impacted by COVID-19.
For the 75% of The Folklore brands that are new to selling outside their home country, the company provides direct-to-consumer distribution channels; shipping products from Africa to New York and then to customers around the world.
“We also help them develop sales sheets listing all of their products and connect them with third-party marketplace platforms, collaboration opportunities, influencers, and the press.” Ms Rasool told Asana during an interview.
If you’re wondering at this point, how The Folklore is sustainable, this is how; all products received are on consignment. This means their most important job is marketing the products so that both the brands and The Folklore can profit.
Amira Rasool has emphasized in several interviews, that she’s not concerned with just selling products. She desires to build a conglomerate like LVMH, that specializes in luxury goods from Africa and represents subsidiaries across fashion, lifestyle and homeware. She’s also passionate about building infrastructure, building up brands, increasing employment on the continent, as well as exports out of the continent.
“We’re not just building a cool eCommerce platform,” she says. “We are helping build infrastructure in Africa that will streamline everything from production to commercialising these brands in a way that allows them to collaborate with larger companies.”
In October, Vogue Business published an article highlighting the new generation of e-commerce retailers that are connecting designers to customers outside Africa. The Folklore, Kisua and Afrikrea were mentioned among a few others. It’s comforting to witness such progress, but only time will tell if these existing platforms will be sustainable enough to stand the test of time.
However, I really do hope that The Folklore is here to stay.
This article is part of my 100-day creative project, “100 days of bad writing”. Inspired by what the journalist, Kiki Mordi, shared as the most meaningful writing advice she ever received — “bad writing is better than no writing”. You can follow everything I share on Instagram or explore what the 100-day project is all about.
