Elevate Africa has officially opened applications for the Threads of Africa Fashion Film Prize 2026, a pan-African initiative aimed at preserving the continent’s rich textile heritage by encouraging creatives to tell compelling stories through fashion and film.

For the opening of Africa Now at Galeries Lafayette, one of Europe’s most iconic luxury retail destinations, the entrepreneur and style star stepped out in a stunning look by Nigerian fashion brand Hertunba.

The Fashioned Museum, founded by Tejumola Maurice-Diya, recently unveiled IAF54: An African Fashion Archive Across 54 Countries, a landmark cultural documentation project that explored fashion, identity, craftsmanship, textiles, history, and storytelling across every nation on the African continent.

Creatives4Peace welcomes submissions from young creatives across Africa whose artistic work demonstrates how culture and creative expression can bridge divides, foster tolerance, and contribute to more inclusive and peaceful societies.

Elevate Africa is pleased to announce that applications are now open for Threads of Africa Fashion Film Prize 2026, a pan-African fashion, culture, and storytelling initiative that invites creatives across the continent to document and reimagine endangered or forgotten African textiles, techniques, and garments through fashion film.

Organisers say the concept perfectly complements the festival’s overarching theme, “A Return to the African Future,” by encouraging designers and festival-goers to draw inspiration from Africa’s rich oral traditions, cultural symbols and historical narratives.

Taking place on 31 July and 1 August at Workshop17 in the V&A Watershed, the sixth annual Africa Textile Talks comes at a time when the continent is facing growing pressure from climate change, cheap imports, shifting global supply chains and the decline of local manufacturing.