Designer&nbsp;<a href="https://www.rebeccaminkoff.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Rebecca Minkoff</a>&nbsp;transformed the four corners of the rooftop terrace at Spring Studios into a completely furnished diorama yesterday evening, each scene reminiscent of New York City’s once vibrant nightlife.



One backdrop mimicked a late-night dress rehearsal at CBGB while another evoked after-hour vibes typical of a swanky lounge in a Tribeca hotel.



“It was all about this boho-rock sensibility that we’re known for,” said Minkoff at her New York Fashion Week presentation. “And it’s about celebrating the cultural institutions that I love that are part of New York City’s fabric.”



The still-life and still-masked models were dialed up in embellished layers and detailed accessories that screamed more badass than boho. Overall, with comforting animal prints, plaid and houndstooth for day, and glitzy sequins and leather for night, her Fall 2020 ready-to-wear collection stayed true to her signature aesthetic.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-gallery columns-1 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex"><ul class="blocks-gallery-grid"><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><figure><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="683" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GettyImages-1272713112-1024x683.jpg" alt="" data-id="47764" data-full-url="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GettyImages-1272713112-scaled.jpg" data-link="https://www.forbesafrica.com/?attachment_id=47764" class="wp-image-47764" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GettyImages-1272713112-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GettyImages-1272713112-scaled-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GettyImages-1272713112-scaled-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GettyImages-1272713112-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GettyImages-1272713112-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GettyImages-1272713112-2048x1365.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="blocks-gallery-item__caption">A Model poses during the Rebecca Minkoff Spring 2021 Presentation at Spring Studios Terrace on September 15, 2020 in New York City. (Photo by Randy Brooke/WireImage)</figcaption></figure></li></ul></figure>



But she pulled out some surprises. In the sea of clutches and crossbody bags was an unsuspecting accessory.



With a long, black military coat draped over it, a model sported the new&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.rebeccaminkoff.com/products/medela-tote?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIpcafruTs6wIViIjICh3vCQ-4EAQYASABEgJ-KPD_BwE" target="_blank">Rebecca Minkoff x Medela Pump and Baby Bag</a>. A breast shield and valve peeked right above the zipper, but even if you have nursed, you likely would’ve never noticed it.&nbsp;



“I wanted to showcase the tote at Fashion Week since a breast pump tote is an essential item for any mom,” says the mother of three. “We moms need a way to keep all our pump parts organized as we’re out and about.”



With the fashion industry in flux, IMG (the event producers of NYFW) and individual designers had to forge partnerships to make fashion shows a reality this season, especially if it was a live show.



In addition to Lowe’s furniture, which provided the furniture and decor for the event, Minkoff tapped Medela as another ally.



“We’ve always admired Rebecca for her passion in supporting breast milk feeding, working parents,” says Melissa Gonzales, executive vice president of the Americas for&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.medela.us/" target="_blank">Medela</a>. “She has been a Medela mom since her first child, so the collaboration was a natural fit for both of us to develop something.”



The versatile limited-edition bag was designed to fit Medela’s personal-use breast pumps. Says Minkoff, “We’ve been working together the last three seasons and I was like, can I design something for you guys? Something that I would love to wear and when I’m done pumping it can be my diaper bag; then when I’m done with diapering it can be my gym bag. Something with multi-functionality.”&nbsp;



She highlights her favorite features: “There’s a removable pouch that you can put dirty parts in that I wish I had because I would always put them in gross Ziploc bags. And there are a ton of compartments to keep your pump parts upright so you don’t have the milk leaking out of the caps.” And there’s nothing worse than spilt milk.



<div class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="683" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GettyImages-1272710108-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-47768" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GettyImages-1272710108-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GettyImages-1272710108-scaled-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GettyImages-1272710108-scaled-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GettyImages-1272710108-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GettyImages-1272710108-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/GettyImages-1272710108-2048x1365.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption>(Photo by Randy Brooke/WireImage)</figcaption></figure></div>



Minkoff acknowledges that many workers no longer have to trek into the workplace, but that doesn’t mean working moms are sitting idle. She also predicts that the massive layoffs, remote schooling and childcare crises that arose from the pandemic will spur a new movement of entrepreneurs.



“You’re going to see a boon of founders and those are going to be the moms who are so sick of what’s going on right now that they’re going to come up with solutions to make their own businesses, go to work, and homeschool their children,” says Minkoff. “So I wanted to design something that was stylish and that would work for them.&#8221; 



Minkoff has teamed up with Medela in the past but this bag marks the first time she has created a physical product for the breast pump company. In her NYFW show last fall, Minkoff featured a digital campaign starring a Medela pump and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.romper.com/p/rebecca-minkoffs-nyfw-show-paid-tribute-to-pumping-breastfeeding-moms-in-inspiring-way-18734391" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Mara Martin</a>, the Sports Illustrated model who made headlines when she walked the swimsuit runway while breastfeeding her newborn. The fact that this isn’t a first-time partnership with Medela suggests this collaboration is Minkoff’s most personal fashion statement yet.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“So much of motherhood is about taking care of other people and not focusing on yourself,” Minkoff says. “I wanted to create something specifically for moms to help them look and feel their best amidst the messy, beautiful, chaotic experience that is being someone’s mom.”



-Tanya Klich, Forbes Staff

Rebecca Minkoff – September 2020 – New York Fashion Week: The Shows

Rebecca Minkoff’s NYFW Fall 2020 Presentation Was An Ode To Manhattan And Motherhood

For the fashion-conscious Nigerian elite, Lagos has a new
design paradigm that could rival some of the world’s best brands.



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



The Lagos Fashion &amp; Design Week (LFDW) in October 2018
saw more than 50 top designers congregate to create everything from intricate
wedding gowns with stunning fabric, woven with traditional techniques from
across the country to high-end and trendy ready-to-wear pieces for the
upwardly-mobile millennial consumer. 



The annual LFDW has a vision to create a fashion platform
that merges the Nigerian and African fashion industry together as well as
providing a marketplace for buyers, consumers and the media to view the current
collections of designers at a four-day event filled with glitz and glamour. 



According to a report by McKinsey, the global fashion
industry is projected to reach a staggering $2.4 trillion in 2016. 



Nigeria’s fashion retail market itself accounts for about
$4.7 billion according to data from Euromonitor. However, Nigerian fashion
brands need to warm up to the emergence of a new connected consumer,
well-synced with the latest in global apparel and fashion trends, if they are
to capture a due share of this growth. 



<ul class="wp-block-gallery columns-3 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-2 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex"><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><figure><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="414" height="618" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/lumi4.png" alt="" data-id="38484" data-link="https://www.forbesafrica.com/?attachment_id=38484" class="wp-image-38484" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/lumi4.png 414w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/lumi4-300x448.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/lumi4-201x300.png 201w" sizes="(max-width: 414px) 100vw, 414px" /><figcaption> Folake Akindele (left). Picture:Supplied </figcaption></figure></li><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><figure><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="411" height="613" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/lumi3.png" alt="" data-id="38485" data-link="https://www.forbesafrica.com/?attachment_id=38485" class="wp-image-38485" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/lumi3.png 411w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/lumi3-300x447.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/lumi3-201x300.png 201w" sizes="(max-width: 411px) 100vw, 411px" /><figcaption> Folake Akindele design. Picture:Supplied </figcaption></figure></li></ul>



This is certainly one aspect Folake Akindele, founder of
fashion brand, Tiffany Amber and one of the most revered designers in Nigeria,
is hoping to address with her new collection, ‘Made in Africa, Made for Now’. 



“Tiffany Amber was the first ready-to-wear brand in Nigeria.
I remember when I launched, I said I wanted to bring African women in line with
fashion trends around the world. Because I was the first in this industry, I
had to make my own rules because there was nobody out there to look up to,”
says Akindele, who studied in the cool climes of Switzerland. Her mission is to
change the perception of Nigerian fashion but that was not always her calling. 



“The real flair for fashion came when I went to law school
in Abuja. I made clothes for myself and everyday, people would stop me and ask
‘where did you buy these clothes from’? So one day, I decided to make two
suitcases of clothes to make a little side business and I sold them in two
hours and that is when I decided to toy with the idea of fashion as a
business,” she says.



Nigeria’s fashion designers have found their way into the
global market in many ways over the past couple of years. For instance,
Akindele was recently short-listed to showcase her line at the fashion week in Paris;
Maki Oh’s outfit was worn by pop sensation Beyoncé in her Lemonade video and
Deola Sagoe has featured at the New York Fashion Week. 



But a new breed of designers and entrepreneurs passionate
about securing Nigeria’s place in the global fashion scene is rising and
Akindele is leading that charge.



<ul class="wp-block-gallery columns-3 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-3 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex"><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><figure><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="413" height="604" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/lumi7.png" alt="" data-id="38486" data-link="https://www.forbesafrica.com/?attachment_id=38486" class="wp-image-38486" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/lumi7.png 413w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/lumi7-300x439.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/lumi7-205x300.png 205w" sizes="(max-width: 413px) 100vw, 413px" /><figcaption> Folake Akindele&#8217;s designs. Picture: Supplied </figcaption></figure></li><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><figure><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="404" height="600" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/lumi6.png" alt="" data-id="38487" data-link="https://www.forbesafrica.com/?attachment_id=38487" class="wp-image-38487" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/lumi6.png 404w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/lumi6-300x446.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/lumi6-202x300.png 202w" sizes="(max-width: 404px) 100vw, 404px" /><figcaption> Model in a Folake Akindele creation. Picture:Supplied </figcaption></figure></li></ul>



But today’s consumers are pushing for fast fashion where
brands are being forced to create new collections faster if they want to stay
competitive.



“We are in what I call the new design paradigm where consumers
want great products that are trendy and unique at great value and at even
greater speed. This puts pressure on new designers who invariably now fixate on
curation over creation,” says Akindele.



This year marks her 20th year as a designer and 15 years since
she launched Tiffany Amber. It is now time to take her brand global.



“I wanted the foundation of the brand to be so strong in
Africa that it becomes a heritage brand before I can grow globally. For about
10 years, I was uninterested in the global market. I wanted to focus on Africa
because I found it interesting that you travel to so many parts of Africa and
you cannot go shopping because there are not many African brands. It was my
first show at the New York Fashion Week that made me fall in love with the idea
of the global scene because the brand was so very well-accepted and we got
invited for the second and third time.” 



With the emergence of e-commerce as a popular channel for
fashion buying, the onus is now increasingly on brands to be collaborative and
innovative. This is difficult in an industry that according to Akindele has
traditionally struggled to raise capital.



“Years ago, the fashion industry was seen as what bored
housewives do. There was no structure to the industry. The funding to grow and
be an industry that attracts money is nowhere to be found here. When you look
at Europe, eight of the richest men are all in the fashion industry. As
Africans, we love to look good and nobody can dress an African the way we can
dress ourselves. So there has to be capital injection in this sector to
encourage more young people to see this as a sector worth going into.” 



There is also a lack of skilled labor as well as access to
quality raw materials to produce designs that meet international standards in Nigeria.
More importantly, Nigeria’s fashion industry needs to recognize that the modern
Nigerian consumer is no different from her counterparts in the west. Brands
need to demonstrate savviness in embracing social media marketing as well as
spotting the latest trends that appeal to the African consumer in order to
create a lucrative business.



<ul class="wp-block-gallery columns-3 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-4 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex"><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><figure><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="410" height="617" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/lumi1.png" alt="" data-id="38488" data-link="https://www.forbesafrica.com/?attachment_id=38488" class="wp-image-38488" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/lumi1.png 410w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/lumi1-300x451.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/lumi1-199x300.png 199w" sizes="(max-width: 410px) 100vw, 410px" /><figcaption> Folake Akindele&#8217;s designs. Picture: Supplied</figcaption></figure></li><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><figure><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="496" height="614" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/lumi2.png" alt="" data-id="38489" data-link="https://www.forbesafrica.com/?attachment_id=38489" class="wp-image-38489" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/lumi2.png 496w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/lumi2-300x371.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/lumi2-242x300.png 242w" sizes="(max-width: 496px) 100vw, 496px" /><figcaption> Model in a Folake Akindele creation. Picture:Supplied </figcaption></figure></li></ul>

Tag: New York Fashion Week

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Rebecca Minkoff’s NYFW Fall 2020 Presentation Was An Ode To Manhattan And Motherhood

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