Bella Naija Style covers the milestone 15th edition of Hub of Africa Fashion Week, a premier platform celebrating the continent's most innovative designers and creative talent.
This landmark event brought together established and emerging African fashion voices, showcasing the diversity, craftsmanship, and contemporary vision that defines African luxury fashion today. Naked Ape was honored to be part of this celebration of African design excellence.
The week highlighted the evolution of African fashion on the global stage, with collections that blend heritage, innovation, and world-class artistry.
To stand on the Hub of Africa Fashion Week stage is to stand in the company of the continent's most visionary creative minds — designers who are not looking to the West for validation, but inward, to the richness of African culture, African craft, and African identity. For Naked Ape, participation in this milestone 15th edition was not simply an honour. It was a homecoming.
Shaldon Kopman has always believed that African fashion belongs on the global stage — not as an exotic footnote, but as a leading voice. The Hub of Africa Fashion Week platform embodies that belief, creating space for designers who are building something meaningful: collections that carry the weight of heritage without being burdened by it, that speak to the present without abandoning the past.
Naked Ape's presence at the event reflected the brand's ongoing commitment to the broader African fashion ecosystem. Kopman's Ethi-Eco² philosophy — Ethical, Ecological, Economical — resonates deeply within a continental context where sustainability is not a trend but a necessity, and where the relationship between maker, material, and community is understood as foundational to good design.
The 15th Hub of Africa Fashion Week was a reminder that African luxury fashion is not emerging. It has arrived. And Naked Ape is proud to be part of the generation that brought it here.
Read the full coverage on Bella Naija Style
Explore The Naked Ape Collection — handcrafted African luxury fashion by Shaldon Kopman.
About the Author
Shaldon Kopman — Founder & Creative Director, Naked Ape Official
Shaldon Kopman is the Founder and Creative Director of Naked Ape Official, a South African premium ethical fashion brand guided by the Ethi-Eco² philosophy. With over 15 years in African fashion design, Shaldon has showcased at South African Fashion Week and been featured in Rolling Stone Africa, Mail & Guardian and more.