Dakar Fashion School Trains New Generation of African Design Talent

As part of an effort to cement Dakar’s position as an epicenter of African culture, the Senegalese capital now plays host to a new school for fashion designers. The brainchild of Senegalese designer, Sophie Nzinga Sy, the Dakar Design Hub aims to give the tools and training to a budding generation of African fashion designers. The campus, an hour outside the Senegalese capital, was formally inaugurated a year ago and began offering courses in February. The school is starting small, with 50 to 100 students expected to attend in the first year, but it hopes to eventually welcome between 250 and 500 students annually. Thanks to word-of-mouth, Nzinga Sy recruited an international faculty with teachers from Senegal, the U.S., The Gambia, Canada and France. “It’s just been really a big melting pot of different people who are experts at a very high level,” she said.

WWD