Kibonen Nfi: A Catalyst of Change

Kibonen Nfi is changing how traditional African fashion designs are being received on a global scale. Known for their conservative shapes and loud prints, Nfi has been able to strike the perfect balance between traditional fabrics and more modern cuts, and is therefore revolutionizing the African fashion industry both in New York city, and in her home country of Cameroon.

 The Cameroonian designer that is changing the face of African fashion both in her home country itself and in America.

The popularity and success stories within the African fashion industry are continuously stunted both in Africa, where being a designer is considered a lowly or unimportant job, and in America, where traditional garments are often perceived as unstylish and unwearable. However,  Nfi is changing this perception by creating designs that are universally stylish yet true to her culture's sartorial roots, while also using them as a vehicle to catalyze positive social and economic change.

Kibonen Nfi wearing and posing next to some of her designs.

Nfi's eponymous line, Kibonen NY, is revolutionary in the sense that it appeals to the Western customer base, while still retaining many design elements that are traditional to the Cameroonian culture. While most traditional African designs are cut or structured in a way that prevent them from being fashionable in America (often characterized by long, stiffly-structured skirts and conservative bell sleeves), Kibonen is able to melange certain African rouching, hemming and structural techniques with more fashion-forward garment shapes to create a product that is both traditionally founded yet universally stylish. The most unchanged traditional aspect of the line is its use of colorful toghu rope, which is embroidered onto the garments in the shapes of various African symbols. The brightly colored rope also gives the garments a very personalized feel, and fits right in to the trend of neon accents that is currently taking over the high fashion industry.

Because she lives part-time in Cameroon, her success as a designer has not gone unnoticed. In her hometown, where "creative people are despised, and professions in fashion, modeling, and photography are considered professions for the underprivileged," she hopes to change how her profession in regarded. Nfi hopes that the respect, profits and notoriety that she is slowly gaining from her designs will begin to change this outlook, and spark a movement towards the idea of fashion as a valuable career in apprehensive African countries. Claudia Adelu, the 2010 winner of Nigeria's Next Super Model, wore a dress by Nfi when she accepted her crown, as did Krista White, the 2012 winner of America's Next Top Model, when she took to the red carpet at a Black Entertainment Television. These two public celebrity appearances in Nfi's designs have exposed them not only to American fashion fans, but to African pop-culture followers as well.

 Another way that Nfi is changing the way Cameroonians see fashion in by having all of her garments made by a group of around 50 women in Cameroon who are part of Made in Camer, a fair trade incorporated organization that employs impoverished women. She believes that this positive economical impact of her business will also help show Cameroonians that fashion can be more than exterior change.

Although she does not yet have a store of her own in New York City, the Made in Camer Harlen boutique carries her design, which is also sold on the popular E-commerce site, Etsy.com. Through the generous support of her fans, Nfi was able to raise $4,000 this past year on crowdfunding website indiegogo.com, which she used to perfect and show her line in South African Fahsion week 2012, where it was very well received.