In the meantime, here’s just a few of the expected – and not so unexpected – places NAF has been spotted:

College daze: At the Heritage1960 pop-up shop at Columbia University’s 2012 African Economic Forum, where H1960′s Enyinne Owunwanne, BET’s Lola Ogunnaike, Max Osterweis from Suno, model Georgie Badiel and Helen Jennings spoke on an African fashion panel in April…

… And here’s one of the day’s happy customers!

Legs eleven: At Temple Muse in Lagos.

Hot to trot: At the elegant gallery / bookstore Clic in Soho, NYC, where NAF was keeping good company next to Gentlemen of Bacongo.

Southside: Keeping more eclectic company at Crow On The Hill, a local bookshop in Crystal Palace, London. What does Noah knit?

In flight: At the Mombasa Airport gift shop.

Tapped and unwrapped: One Nigerian Boy got his NAF on Amazon and then showed it some Tumblr lovin’.

Arty: At the Tate Modern, London.

Strike a pose: Barnes & Noble, NYC.

Well travelled: Exclus1ve Books, Cape Town.

Doll face: At Kluk CGDT‘s Johannesburg boudoir.

Front and centre: In the window of the store at Studio Museum Harlem, NYC.

Downtown: Signed copies at St Marks Bookstore, Lower East Side, NYC.

Live from the coast: Emeka Alams got mail in Abidjan.

Boxing clever: Among other pretty things from H1960.

So> Where did you spy yours?

Artist. Photographer. Author. Dandy. Iké Udé is the man of considerable talents who very kindly wrote the foreword to New African Fashion. In it, the aRUDE magazine and The Chic Index editor likens the excitement surrounding African fashion now to Pablo Picasso’s ‘African moment’ when he first encountered African art.

He writes:

“It was in 1907, Picasso admitted to the venerable French writer André Malraux, that he was so utterly stunned by his encounter with African art that he kept repeating the words ‘shock’, ‘revelation’,’force’ and ‘charge’. Collectively, the varied superb talents of designers ranging from the veterans Joe Casely-Hayford and Eric Raisina to new talents Gloria Wavamunno, Mataano, Pierre-Antoine Vettorello and Stiaan Louw are all by various degrees inevitably holding sway on a global scale – for good. Consequently, as happened to Picasso aeons ago, the fashion world is increasingly having its ‘African moment’ in this new millennium….”

In a perfect piece of synergy, aRUDE has also featured the book on its website. Read the interview by Claire Sulmers (editor of The Fashion Bomb) here.

Photography: Jackie King

The New York launch of New African Fashion made headline news.

The book itself and the talk at the NY Public Library was previewed in Paper magazine – read the story here.

The talk was also attended by Simone S Oliver from the New York Times, who used the debate as the basis of her feature discussing Africa’s influence on international fashion. Entitled Designers Take A Fresh Look At Africa, it quotes Helen Jennings, Duro Olowu, Mimi Plange and Mataano and reiterates the point that there’s so much more to African style than “animal prints, mud cloth and cowrie shells.”

It was was printed in last Thursday’s Styles section. Read the full article here and view the online gallery here.

The NY-based blogs also did New African Fashion proud with several posts about the talk and after party by the likes of Fashion Bomb Daily, Fashion Junkii, Okay Africa, Society HAE and Highsnobette.

Helen Jennings said: “Over the past few weeks I’ve done launches for New African Fashion in Johannesburg, Lagos and London but New York has blown me away. I’m delighted by how well the book has been received. Thank you to everyone who attended the events, bought the book and shared the love.”

Next stop? That’d be telling…

If the London launch of New African Fashion proved anything, it’s that supporters of this book know how to party. And it was the same story on the other side of the pond a month later as the New York launch attracted a good looking, good times crowd to private members club Parlor in Soho on Thursday 1 December.

Co-hosts Helen Jennings, Enyinne Owunwanne, Mataano and Ibrahim Ndoye of The Afropolitan Society welcomed everyone who had waited patiently in the cold queue outside. Early birds were warmed up with free prosecco and afro pop sounds courtesy of the one and only DJake. Later, Philly-born Senegalese hip hop/kukubass/electro/just plain good artist Zakee performed three songs from his debut album Assimilations.

The evening also served as a preview of the brands Heritage1960 will sell when the retail arm of Enyinne’s website launches later this month. Pieces by Chapel, Edun, Georgie’s Garden, Mimi Plange, J Label and The Summit were displayed and admired around the club. Enyinne wore a dress made in Madagascar for Edun and Fulani earrings while Helen wore a Jewel by Lisa blouse, Masai earrings, Maya Antoun ring and Mo Saique shoes.

Among the revellers were models Kinée Diouf, Oluchi Onweagba and Ger Duany (who all feature in the book), BET presenter Lola Ogunnaike and her sister Nikki from In Style, designers Sarah Williams (Free Peoples Rebellion), Loza Maléombho and LaQuan Smith, The Fader’s Mobolaji Dawodu and press and bloggers representing Essence, Okay Africa, Highsnobette, Another Africa, AfriPop, NY Times, ARISE and Vogue. Banky W might have sung that ‘there ain’t no party like a Lagos party’ but these guys might beg to differ. Here’s the visual evidence:

Photography: Jackie King

It was standing room only at the New York Public Library on Wednesday 30 November for the talk on New African Fashion. Helen Jennings was joined by the talented and graceful Mimi Plange, Ayaan and Idyl Mohallim (Mataano) and Enyinne Owunwanne (Heritage1960).

After introductions by NYPL’s Arezoo Moseni, Helen spoke about her background, experiences as editor of ARISE and the reasons why she decided to write the book. She also summarised its contents, from cover star Kinée Diouf, foreword by Iké Udé and lengthy introduction, to the three main sections on designers, models and photographers. “My main message is that African fashion is now taking a global approach and can’t easy be pigeon holed by a handful of clichés,” she said. “By fusing local and international inspirations, African designers are offering the fashion world something new.”

Helen then handed the floor to Mimi, who spoke eloquently about her Ghanaian heritage, education in architecture and fashion and past work for Patricia Fields and Rachel Roy. She went on to explain the inspirations behind her current collections. Autumn/winter 2011/12 looks at ethnic scarification in Ghana while spring/summer 2012 explores the contemporary dress of the Himba and Herero women of Namibia. These references are felt almost subliminally through her hand finished detailing, colour palette and shoe styles in association with Manolo Blahnik.

Ayan and Idyl took turns to talk about their upbringing in the USA and Somalia and how they both convened in New York after university to break into fashion. After work experiences at Jill Stuart and Betsey Johnson, they launched Mataano (meaning twins in Somali) in 2009. They also expressed the importance for them of taking the brand back to Africa via fashion weeks in South Africa, Ethiopia and Nigeria.

Enyinne took the mic and raised a few smiles in the audience by revealing some lesser known facts about the panel. Helen once drank a few too many blue-hued cocktails with Idris Elba in Miami, the twins have both kissed Jay-Z on the cheek and Mimi has played the flute for Bill Clinton! She then threw out some questions on the topics of who the new African consumer is and what role fashion weeks on the continent should play in building the business of African fashion.

Running over time and with security guards trying to usher the friendly crowd out of the door, the final few minutes were given over to book buying (all copies sold out) and signing. A huge thank you to everyone who made it to the event.

The New African Fashion juggernaut rolls into New York City next week.

On Wednesday 30 November, Helen hosts a talk at the New York Public Library as part of its Design & Style book series. She’ll be joined by designers Mataano and Mimi Plange, model campaigner Bethann Hardison and Enyinne Owunwanne of Heritage1960, who will MC the round table discussion. It’s a public event, first come, first served.

The following evening the real fun begins with the strictly invite-only NYC launch party for New African Fashion at private members club Parlor. There will be a guest performance by Philly artist Zakee and sounds courtesy of DJ mOma and DJake. Enyinne will preview some of the designers and market finds shortly to be for sale on her beautifully curated site Heritage1960. And there will, of course, be free booze. It promises to be quite a shindig.

New African Fashion has now been featured not once, not twice, but three times by Vogue.

First it appeared on the book pages of the October issue of UK Vogue.

Then US Vogue asked Duro Olowu to discuss the book for Vogue Daily. He obliged.

And now Vogue Black has reviewed it. The story says New African Fashion “makes a good entry point for fashion lovers looking to deepen their knowledge of African fashion further than the big-budget appropriations seen on the runways and the temporal moment they are sure to spark.”

Hear hear!

Six designers featured in New African Fashion also made special one-off book coverings to mark the occasion. Big thanks to Maki Oh, Tiffany Amber, Lanre da Silva Ajai, Tsemaye Binitie, Jewel by Lisa and Mataano for their delightfully inventive covers.

Here are some photos of the event, taken by Emma Nwawadu

Oluchi Onweagba

Avinash Wadhwani and Maki Oh

Helen Jennings, Hauwa Mukan and Keziah Jones

Lanre da Silva Ajai

Bola Fadina and friends

Eku Edewor and friend

Maureen Okogwu-Ikokwu of Sunny Rose

Kiki Kamanu

Kabir Wadhwani and friend

Helen Jennings and Folake Folarin-Coker of Tiffany Amber

Bridget Awosika and friend

Book coverings by Jewel by Lisa, Mataano and Lanre da Silva Ajai

Book covering by Maki Oh