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The emerging influences from Africa, how Pride celebrations influence beauty and fashion and what's next for plus-size fashion. That and more on today's episode. Want to know what's next? For over two decades, we've led the world's most influential brands to create the right products at the right time for tomorrow's consumer. This is WGSN's Client Questions: Answered. Hello and welcome to the show where our experts from around the globe unpack your biggest challenges. I'm Carla Buzasi, President and CEO at WGSN. Let's get started. Our first question comes from a client asking: what are the emerging trends and influences coming from Africa? A really good question.
So let's head to South Africa to hear what Raeesa Brey, our researcher there, has to say. Over to you, Raeesa. The African continent is bursting with talent across multiple sectors and are finally being represented on a global stage. Here are some examples of those influencing the African fashion design, beauty and music industries. For fashion, I'd like to spotlight Lukhanyo Mdingi, who works with artisanal communities across South Africa, Burkina Faso and Somalia to create his pieces.
Visit the Africa Fashion exhibition at London's V&A Museum to view his work with many other influential African designers. As A-beauty is rising in popularity, be inspired by Umu Ora, who aims to create transparent and sustainable African supply chains, sourcing the effective ingredients from across the continent. Lastly, within music, South Africa's amapiano genre has been growing in popularity around the world. It's a hybrid of jazz, deep house and lounge music that is exemplified by musician Lady Du, who is dominating the scene.
Brilliant insight there. You can find a great report on Cape Town on our City by City vertical, which also named Nairobi one of our cities to watch this year. Our next question comes from a client asking: how does the evolution of Pride celebrations coincide with the growth of city dwellers in America? And what impact does that have on youth consumers in beauty and fashion? A really interesting question. This one I'm passing over to Carmela, our Trend Researcher for Mindset based in the US. Pride events have become annual cultural touchpoints for youth and city dwellers. Urban residents now represent 83% of the total US population. With more folks than ever participating in Pride, these safe spaces are where trends are being refined and tested, with euphoria make-up being a great example. Multigenerational families normalising going to Pride together is going to really impact the future of Gen Alpha and how they perceive personal expression, as well as what it means to be inclusive. The sociopolitical events of the last two years have undeniably also shifted Pride and it's become more reflective of intersectional LGBTQ+ communities. In 2022, the Pride festival in March here, where I reside in Philadelphia, was thrown for the first time in history by a local organisation called PHL Pride Collective and it was also truly inclusive.
There was low-sensory accessible areas, lactation stations, lots of types of kids' entertainment, voguing competitions, a therapy dog tent, so much and a little bit of something for everybody. These types of allclusive behaviours will be expected by brands from this next generation and the consumers raising them. Amazing. Thank you Carmela for that answer. Our final question for today comes from a client asking: as representation of the plus-size consumer improves on the catwalks and in fast fashion, what's next for this market? Giving us their take on this topic is Jen Kettle, our Deputy Head of Subbing based in London.
Over to you, Jen. This market is heading in three directions: sustainable fashion, a global reach and representation of more diverse bodies. Affordable, sustainable clothing is hard to find for plus-size consumers, with many turning to Depop to source secondhand items. There's a real opportunity to make it more accessible. Look to US active brand Girlfriend Collective, which uses recycled fabric in sizes up to 6XL. Go beyond North America for influencers and designers, too. Belgian label Ester Manas makes garments in one size that fits up to 3XL.
Japanese comedian Naomi Watanabe's style is so beloved she launched the brand Punyus, while Barbie Ferreira, who is of Brazilian descent, stars in TV show Euphoria. Models with an hourglass shape have been widely showcased to represent more body types. Look out for Enam Asiama, a queer Ghanian and British model who's in a campaign for French house Maison Margiela and Norwegian-Somali trans model Ceval Omar at Charlotte Tilbury.
Great stuff, thanks Jen. You can check out our Retail team's reports on the plus-size market on the Fashion site for further inspiration. That's it for this week. If you have any questions or comments that you'd like answered, please pop them in the comments box for our team. I'm Carla Buzasi and I'll see you next time..
