How AFS Reimagined the Runway Experience

From Joburg to Cape Town

African fashion has experienced inspiring creative growth and commercial success over the past ten to fifteen years, with even streetwear designers gaining increased recognition both locally and internationally. It feels like an exciting time to throw your hat in the ring, especially as an aspiring designer, because why not?

Yet despite this current momentum, opportunities to experience fashion at its peak (and more inclusively) in South Africa often remain confined to traditional runway formats and industry-centred events that can favour social currency or proximity over broader creative narratives.

While these traditional fashion showcases continue to play an important role in cultivating the industry's commercial ecosystem, they have also highlighted the limited participation of designers outside established fashion circles, many of whom continue to navigate barriers to visibility, access and meaningful brand-building opportunities.

Sometimes, it can feel like an "us versus them" situation, where designers outside traditional runway spaces may receive moments of recognition for their work or a brief spotlight, but these moments do not always translate into long-term commercial opportunities. More importantly, the stories, identities and creative processes behind their collections are not always given the space needed to fully unfold.

Fashion has always existed as more than clothing. It reflects moments in culture, identity, aspiration and the communities from which it emerges. Yet conventional fashion event formats have often treated collections as seasonal showcases rather than expressions of a designer’s broader creative journey, cultural influences and lived experiences.

As African fashion continues to establish itself on the global stage, there has been a growing appetite from creatives and audiences beyond established fashion circles for experiences that feel more inclusive, immersive and reflective of the wider communities shaping African culture. Experiences that allow people to engage not only with a collection, but with the designer, the story and the creative ecosystem surrounding it.

Increasingly, creative communities are seeking new ways to present fashion that feel more collaborative, inclusive and culturally connected. Perhaps this is why the conversation has gradually shifted beyond simply asking who has the influence or access to showcase their work, towards asking what stories those collections carry and how audiences can experience them beyond the runway.

It is within this evolving landscape that SPACES AFRICA developed AFRICAN FASHION SPACES — not to replace the traditional runway, but to demonstrate (outside of it) how fashion could be encountered as a living cultural exhibition where space, storytelling and community became just as important as the threads themselves.

Did you know that during its inception in 2016, SPACES AFRICA used fashion as the gateway to introduce its vision of reimagining creative spaces? Its very first experience—a multi-level fashion presentation staged inside an art gallery in Johannesburg—set the tone for what would become the platform’s defining approach: transforming unconventional venues into immersive cultural experiences where fashion, art and community converged.

Years later, Fashion SPACES would continue evolving that vision through a series of experiential exhibitions that challenged the conventions of the traditional runway. From a rooftop overlooking Cape Town’s skyline to an immersive garden exhibition in Johannesburg that also made use of a refurbished tennis court, each edition demonstrated that African fashion deserved environments designed around storytelling rather than spectacle alone.

Rather than presenting collections in isolation, Fashion SPACES invited audiences into spaces where fashion, music and community existed as one. The result was never simply a fashion show, but a living exhibition that reinforced SPACES AFRICA’s ambition to rethink how African fashion is experienced.

The Fashion Vision Returns to Johannesburg

By 2023, African Fashion Spaces had returned to Johannesburg with an even more ambitious interpretation of its original vision. Hosted at Beachwood Gardens in Hyde Park, the exhibition abandoned the conventional runway in favour of a series of curated moments, allowing each designer (Kgomotso Kiggy & Brian Sathekge) to inhabit a space tailored to their own creative identity.

Rather than guiding audiences along a single catwalk, guests were encouraged to move through a sequence of presentations, experiencing each collection within its own distinct atmosphere. Kiggy’s LongSeason transformed a tennis court into a striking streamlined runway illuminated by dramatic lighting. At the same time, Brian’s OffMankind’s exhibition unfolded along the venue’s garden walkways to reflect the brand’s rebellious spirit through an installation that felt equally rooted in fashion, art and culture.

Hosted by Shamiso Mosaka, the evening reaffirmed Fashion SPACES’ commitment to celebrating the new energy of African creativity by creating experiences that were as memorable as the collections themselves. More than a simple showcase of garments, the exhibition became a platform where emerging designers, creatives and industry leaders gathered to celebrate the future of African fashion.

Reflecting on the exhibition, Creative Director Jay Kayembe reiterated the philosophy that had guided the platform since its inception:

We wanted to create an experience that was more than just a fashion show—an exhibition platform that would empower the greater creator economy. By taking the show off the traditional runway and into unique and unexpected spaces, we were able to create a one-of-a-kind experience that truly highlighted the creativity and diversity of African fashion.

From the platform’s perspective, the 2023 Johannesburg exhibition demonstrated just how far SPACES AFRICA had evolved since 2016. While the venues had changed and the productions had grown more ambitious, the purpose remained unchanged: to reimagine spaces where African fashion could be experienced as culture.

A New Approach to Fashion Presentation

Hosted on a rooftop overlooking Cape Town’s skyline, 2023 also marked the debut of Fashion SPACES’ immersive exhibition format in the Mother City, transforming the traditional runway into a cultural experience where designers, creatives and audiences connected through storytelling, music and visual expression.

Featuring Sinchui and Fuata Moyo, the showcase demonstrated the platform’s evolving approach to fashion presentation. Sinchui reimagined early-2000s hip-hop influences through a contemporary African streetwear lens, while Fuata Moyo’s ROOTS/ROUTES explored heritage, identity and future possibilities through fashion.

Looking back, the Cape Town and Johannesburg exhibitions represent defining chapters in the evolution of African Fashion Spaces—establishing a platform built on immersive storytelling, meaningful collaboration and creative freedom.

Beyond redefining the runway, these experiences created new commercial opportunities for fashion collaborators locally and internationally, reinforcing SPACES AFRICA’s commitment to creating spaces where African creatives can claim ownership, access new audiences, and break through traditional barriers.

More than exhibitions, Fashion SPACES continues to prove that when fashion is given room to exist beyond convention, it becomes a powerful cultural experience that elevates creativity and transforms lives.