Fashion is also a big deal in weddings nowadays as every Bride with her Brides maidens and groom with his groomsmen choose attires, designs and styles that make them stand out from amongst the crowd.
A good taste in fashion basically spurs up confidence and a swollen head as those who wear the dresses parade past guests and audience who can’t, but just stare in admiration.
Find below the top 8 fashion designers in Ghana:
Kofi Ansah
Kofi Ansah (6 July 1951 – 3 May 2014) was a Ghanaian fashion designer. He was considered a pioneer in promoting modern African styles and design on the international stage. He was married to Nicola Ansah and the father of actor Joey Ansah, Tanoa Ansah and Ryan Ansah.
Ansah was born in 1951 into an artistic family and his interest in art and design was encouraged by his father, a photographer and classical musician. Ansah studied at Chelsea School of Art, graduating in 1979 with a first-class honours degree in fashion design and distinction in design technology.
He initially made his name working on the UK fashion scene – he had first made headlines on his graduation when he made a beaded top for Princess Anne and later returned to Ghana in 1992, where he set up and ran the successful design and creative concept company Artdress. He was the founder and past president of the Federation of African Designers. Characteristic of his style was the use of quilting, embroidery and appliqué.
He died at Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, aged 62, on 3 May 2014. His funeral was held in the forecourt of State House in Accra.
Ansah won the prestigious Ghana Quality Awards Diamond Division in October 2003, for clothing and textile with Artdress Ltd, and his company was the winner of the Millennium 2000 African Fashion Awards. He also designed the anniversary fabric for the Ghana@50 Golden Jubilee Celebration. He designed the costumes for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 African Cup of Nations staged in Ghana, and in 2009 was the chief designer at the Festival of African Fashion and Arts (FAFA).
He was posthumously honoured in November 2015 at the ETV Ghana Fashion Awards for his “immense contribution to the fashion industry and the prestige of the nation.”
Elikem Kumordzie
Elikem Kumordzie commonly known as Elikem The Tailor (born November 7, 1988) is a Ghanaian actor, fashion designer and master of ceremonies.
In 2013 Kumordzie came third on the reality TV show Big Brother Africa (season 8), representing Ghana.
Elikem was born in Accra, and attended Kay Billie Klaer Academy and Englebert Junior High School. For his secondary education, he attended St. Thomas Aquinas SHS a secordary school in Accra. He later proceeded to University of Ghana, where he obtained a BSc in Combined Psychology and Theater Arts.
In 2013 Kumordzie appeared on the reality TV show Big Brother Africa (season 8), representing Ghana. He emerged third and first ever Ghanaian to make it at the grand finals.
His breakthrough acting role was in 2013 when he actedin a movie titled Cheaters. He has also acted in Silver Rain (2015),Pauline’s Diary (2017), among others.
In 2019, he was nominated as “Best Dressed Celebrity on the Red Carpet” at the Glitz Style Awards.
Somewhere late 2019, Elikem was spoted pitching a classic masterpiece for Top American comedian, Mr. Steve Harvey.
Aisha Ayensu
Aisha Ayensu is a Ghanaian award-wining fashion designer who is known to have designed outfits and stage costumes for Beyonce, Genevieve Nnaji, Jackie Appiah and Sandra “Alexandrina” Don-Arthur. She is the founder and Creative Director of Christie Brown, a Ghanaian fashion house. She was interviewed by Folu Storms and for the BBC World Service’s radio programme and listed as one of Forbes’ Most Promising Entrepreneurs in 2016.
Ayensu has a background in psychology and fashion. She had her training in fashion from Joyce Ababio College of Creative Design.
With inspiration from her grandmother, she founded the fashion house Christie Brown in March 2008 in Ghana which is now recognised internationally. She has featured as “Platinum Standard” on NdaniTV in 2014 and she was interviewed by Folu Storms when she visited Accra in the New Africa series in 2016. She is the founder and Creative Director of Christie Brown, a Ghanaian fashion house. She was interviewed by Afua Hirsch for their programme “In the Studio” for the BBC World Service’s radio programme in 2016. This was four months before her annual collection where she faces the “challenge of making her culture globally acceptable” and this celebrated her tenth year of being in business. She was also listed as one of Forbes’ Most Promising Entrepreneurs in 2016.
She has won several awards which includes:
2009 – Emerging Designer of the Year , Arise Africa fashion event in South Africa
2010 – Only Ghanaian label chosen to showcase in the Arise L’Afrique-á-Porter, in Paris during Paris Fashion Week
2018 – Best Fashion Designer, Africa Prestigious Awards
2018 – African Designer of the Year, Glitz Style Awards
2019 – African Designer of the Year, Glitz Style Awards
Kwaku Bediako
Kwaku Bediako (born 7 May 1986) is a Ghanaian contemporary fashion designer and founder of Chocolate Clothing.
Kwaku attended University of Ghana Primary School Legon, then proceeded to Achimota School. He furthered his education in University of Ghana where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts and Science in Archaeology and Information Studies.
Kwaku is married to Melissa Owusu, the founder of the make-up brand, Aquia.
Kwaku after graduating from the University of Ghana set up an idea company Checkmates, which provided marketing and business ideas services. He evolved from writing movie scripts into designing clothes after encountering Mr Philip Ayesu of GM Multiproconcepts and the CEO of XMEN Grooming through Checkmates.
He founded the fashion company, Chocolate Clothes which started operating as a clothing line for women in March 2013 but grew into a men’s wear and accessories brand and later got incorporated in 2018. Although starting the clothing brand as a single-handedly operated business, Kwaku in recent times has unveiled that the growing fashion house is now capable of handling 1000 orders a month. Chocolate does not only design clothes but also manages the production of custom-made shoes and sandals.
The name Chocolate according to Kwaku is meant to drive more interest and craving in people towards his products, a revelation he made in an interview with CNN on African Start-up.
Kwaku won the best fashion designer of the year award during the 2018 EMY Africa Awards. He also won the maiden edition of Tailored African Fashion 2018, a project by African Fashion Fund in collaboration with Joy FM. His winning package comprised a flight to Paris as a speaker for the Change Now Summit as well as a visit to the French fashion house and luxury retail company, Louis Vuitton where he was to acquaint himself with Paris’ lavish products and brands. Through the African Fashion Fund, designs by Chocolate Clothes were featured in the Paris Fashion Week too.
Chocolate again clothed the Black Stars of Ghana during the 2014 world cup.
Chocolate has been featured in the Congo Airways magazine, CNN African Voices in January 2016, Vogue Magazine in 2017 and BBC radio in 2018.
Designs by Chocolate were among the works of designers displayed at the banquet held by the President of Ghana in honour of His Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales and his wife Camilla Duchess of Cornwall during their five-day state visit in November 2018. Chocolate Clothes’ designs were showcased at the Fashion for Peace show in Paris, organized by the EU, African Fashion Fund, UN ITC-EFI and Ethical Fashion.
Chocolate designs have been displayed at fashion shows including Radiance Fashion Show and Glitz Africa Fashion Week.
Celebrities such as Nasty C, Mr Eazi, Black Boy of GhOne, Majid Michel, Joe Mettle, M.anifest and Kwabena Kwabena patronize Chocolate Clothing. Jussie Smollett, better known as Jamal Lyon from Empire wore a piece by Chocolate Clothing in his music video Hurt People.
Mimi Plange
Mimi Plange is a Ghanaian born fashion designer. She moved to America as a child where she has studied architecture and fashion.
Plange was born in Accra, Ghana. She moved to California with her family when she was young. She received a BA in Architecture from the University of California at Berkeley and attended the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in California. After her education she moved to New York and worked for both Patricia Fields and Rachel Roy.
She and her business partner, Ibrahim Ndoye, created a fashion line Boudoir D’huîtres but she later changed it to her own name Mimi Plange in 2010.
Her designs are influenced by African heritage. Her customers have included Rihanna, Serena Williams and first Lady Michelle Obama. Michelle wore her A-line skirt on the ABC TV show The View. Plange was the Designer of the Year at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week South Africa.
In an interview with the NYTimes, Plange states, “I want to prove to people that African fashion can’t be pigeonholed,” she said. “I can compete globally.” Plange doesn’t use traditional African prints or textiles in her designs. In her Spring 2012 collection, Scarred Perfection, she referenced the body scars that Africans would use as a mode of tribal identification. Plange explains, “I am motivated by those things that make us question how we represent ourselves to other people.”
In 2015 she collaborated with furniture designers Roche Bobois to create Mahjong tiles and sofas dressed with her materials that were made in Burkina Faso.
Mabel Simpson
Mabel Simpson is a female Ghanaian fashion designer and CEO of mSimps in Ghana. Mabel was born to Mr and Mrs Simpson in Accra, Greater Accra Region of Ghana.
Simpson’s primary education took place at Ridge Church School and her secondary education was at Wesley Girls’ High School, where she studied Visual Arts.
Mabel studied at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology where she studied Communication Design and Visual Arts graduating with a Second Class Upper in BA Communication Design.
She started mSimps with a borrowed sowing machine from her grandmother. At age 25, with a capital of US$100 (GHS200), Simpson resigned from her office job in August 2010 to start mSimps. It took mSimps five years to go international, mSimps now has suppliers in the US, Australia, Canada and South Africa.
She is single and fellowships at St. Augustine Anglican Church in Dansoman.
She has been recognised internationally regarding young entrepreneurship skills by CNN and BBC.
Mabel was the 10th finalist in the Joy Fm My Business 2011
She was also the 2ndrunner up in the 2012 Enablis / UT BANK Business LaunchPad competition
She won the Accessory Brand of the Year 2013 at the Glitz Africa Fashion Week
Mabel won Best Handbag and Purse Product of the Year 2013 at 1st Ghana Made Products Awards
Oheneba Nana Yaw Boamah
Oheneba Nana Yaw Boamah is a male Ghanaian fashion designer and creative director of Bespoke fashion brand Abrantie the Gentleman in Ghana.
Oheneba Nana Yaw Boamah was born to Samuel Osei Boamah and Angela Owusu Agyei at Accra, Greater Accra Region of Ghana.
Boamah attended his basic education at Prince of Peace International School and his senior education was at Koforidua Senior High Technical School. He studied Industrial Arts Industrial Arts and majored in Textiles at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.
Boamah started Abrantie brand after university. He worked at textiles firms in Ghana like; TexstyleGhana Limited (GTP) and Ghana Textiles Manufacturing Company(GTMC) from 2006 to 2012.
His creative ideas through the Abrantie the Gentleman has produced seven(7) different fashion collections such as; A-Look, Our Heritage, Alewa, Checkables, Ayeyi, G’Man, Adehyie.
His work has been showcased at the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week, Glitz Africa Fashion Week (Ghana), Durban Fashion Fair (South Africa), Samsung Fashion meets Gadget Show, Africa International Fashion Week (Nigeria), South African Menswear Week (Cape Town) and Expo 2015.
Boamah was nominated as Menswear designer of the year 2018 at Glitz Style Awards
Won Designer of the Year 2015 at Glitz Style Awards
He was nominated as African Designer of the Year 2017 at the Glitz Africa Awards
He won the Fashion Personality of the year 2017 at 40 Under 40 Awards.
His brand Abrantie won Fashion Designer Of The Year 2017 at Exclusive Men of the Year’(EMYs) Africa Awards.
His brand Abrantie got nominated as Designer of the Year (Men’s Wear) at 2017 West African Fashion Award.
The Abrantie brand won Fashion Icons Awards Next Rated Designer of the Year 2015.
Kofi Okyere Darko
Kofi Okyere Darko popularly known as KOD (born January 1, 1978 is a Ghanaian broadcaster, Master of Ceremonies, media expert and fashion designer. Kofi is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of clothing line “Nineteen 57”. He is also the founder of Rhythms on Da Runway.
KOD,formerly Richard Aidoo was born in 1978 at Winneba , a town in the Central Region to the late Mr. James Aidoo, a retired Deputy Director of the Ghana Prisons and Mrs. Margaret Aidoo, one of the founding members of the 31st December women’s movement.
KOD had his Elementary Education at Winneba. He gained admission to Nifa Secondary School in Adukurom but prior to studied at Harvard College, and later studied at Ghana Institute of Journalism.
KOD first worked as a production assistant for a TV show on Ghana Broadcasting Corporation for a short period of time and later left to join the then budding and vibrant Radio Gold. He left the shores of Ghana later to England to seek greener pastures and to explore other opportunities. He initially aspired to be a model but unfortunately got hired as a security person and was only posted to fashion houses like Ted Baker, Paul smith etc. On one such duty posts, the manager at Paul Smith spotted the sharpness in his outfit and urged him to quit his job as a security guard and apply there as a sales person and seeing the huge opportunity opened to him; he quickly applied for the position and was successful. After two (2) years of living in England, he came back to Ghana to continue working with Radio Gold. He joined EIB Network, LIVE FM as a Presenter and Events & Marketing Manager in August 2015. He is currently the host of Starr Drive on Starr FM in Accra, Ghana.
KOD is married to fashion designer Ophelia Crossland; together they have two daughters.
He won the 2015 Most Stylish Radio Personality of the Year at Glitz Style Awards.
Kofi was nominated at 2016 Male Fashion Celebrity Icon of the Year at the 2016 Ghana Fashion Awards.
Kofi won 2017 Man of The Year Style Award (Most Fashionable Man of The Year) at the Exclusive Men Of The Year Awards.
