Seven-year-old, June Alaare Wisse, Nigerian-Dutch model has emerged winner of the African kids fashion week competition for kids, while Jayson Egbon, 8, and Oladeji Excel, 4, emerged second and third runners up, respectively.
The competition, sponsored by Smart Code Africa, was held virtually to showcase the best of African fashion, inspired by rich and diverse culture with traditional fabrics in a creative and stylish way.
The African Kids Fashion Week is an event created to showcase the best of African fashion for children, with this year edition themed: ‘Showcase’.
In a statement on Monday in Lagos, the Creative Director of the event, Mr Ajibola Akande, said that the fashion week was an event created to showcase the best of African fashion for kids.
Akande said that this year’s edition aimed to build the attitude and develop personality for the young Africans to love and embrace African attires.
He explained that contestants with the highest likes and engagement online became the African kids fashion week, Showcase, winner.
“The event gave children between the ages of four to 12 the opportunity to showcase the best of African fashion inspired by the rich and diverse culture in Africa,” he said.
Akande said that the online event started with an entry on Aug.9 and closed on Aug. 22, while voting started on Aug. 23 and ended on Aug. 29, 2020.
“The voting was filled with interesting activities as contestants scramble for votes from all over the world.
“Some Nigerian celebrities also joined in the competition by endorsing their chosen candidates to win the competition.
“The voting platform was through a social media page on Instagram called ‘africankidsfashionweek‘.
“This year’s edition was powered by Smartcode Africa and was supported by Mobiwura Children Fragrance, Afrikayla, Wonder Child for Kids, Wealahkids among other top kids designers, “he said.
Akande added that the economic value of the project was also aimed at retaining the foreign exchange that goes out of Africa within Africa.
“Billions of dollars go out of Africa from the children fashion industry and one of the main objectives of the African Kids Fashion Week is to help retain those funds within Africa.
“When the children grow up wearing African fashion, they will definitely stick to it when they are of age.
“If all the children in Africa are wearing African fashion, you can imagine how much that will contribute to the Africa economy with respect to the internally generated revenue,” he said. (NAN)