Mayor Aki-Sawyerr Launches the Freetown Fashion Design and Creative Arts Network

In 2020 Mayor Giuseppe Sala of Milan and I co-founded the Mayors’ Dialogue; a city-led platform for Africa & Europe that aims to create opportunities and improve the lives of our residents, including addressing the dearth of youth jobs in many African cities that is a driver of irregular migration. As Milan is a world leader in the fashion industry, we decided to centre our first city-to-city collaboration on fashion!

This Friday 16th December, after months of working together to identify opportunities for collaboration between the fashion design industries and creative communities in our cities, we reached a significant milestone with the launch of the Freetown Fashion, Design and Creative Arts Network. In partnership with and supported by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) and Labrum (a menswear fashion brand fusing British tailoring with West African design) the platform will be used to develop and channel opportunities for skills exchanges between designers, broker networks and alliances amongst textile manufacturers and more broadly support business development and investment in Freetown’s fashion industry. The ultimate aim is to open the Milan market to Freetown fashion, thereby growing the industry and creating jobs.

Marta Foresti, ODI project lead and Foday Dumbuya, Labrum founder and creative director, came from London and Nonku Msomi from Durban City Council came from Durban to participate in the launch event and to engage with Freetown based creatives who have been working on the concept of the Freetown Fashion, Design and Creative Arts Network for several months.

We were excited to listen to three Freetown creative makers share reflections about their experiences in London and Milan in July and September this year. It was also a pleasure to listen to a recorded message from Mayor Giuseppe Sala of Milan. Another highlight was watching a very moving film produced by London based Sierra Leonean producer Julian Knox. “Freedom of Movement” embodies the concept of what the Freetown Fashion Design and Creative Arts Network and the broader Mayors Dialogue seek to achieve.

An arts and crafts exhibition provided a stimulating background to a lovely evening in which fashion designers, makers, musicians, artists and film makers, Empower Africa and Innovation SL committed to working together with Freetown City Council to ensure that the Freetown Fashion, Design and Creative Arts Network is a success!

#FreetownCreatives

#TransformFreetown