Building Stronger Fashion Systems Through Academia–Industry Partnerships

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Across the continent, fashion has become an increasingly significant economic and cultural force, shaping how communities express identity, innovate, and engage with global markets. It is a space defined by remarkable creativity, entrepreneurial energy, and a growing network of designers, producers, and businesses who contribute meaningfully to local and international value chains.

One of the most consequential fault lines is the persistent divide between academia and industry. On one side, academic institutions house a growing body of research, legal frameworks, and policy thinking that could fundamentally strengthen the industry. On the other, fashion entrepreneurs, designers, and creative businesses are building their visions in real time, often without access to the strategic, legal, or structural scaffolding that research can provide.

The future of fashion, particularly in emerging markets such as Africa, depends on bridging this divide.

The Disconnection and Its Cost

The creative economy thrives on innovation, but innovation alone does not sustain industries. Fashion in Africa, like many emerging markets, is largely driven by the ingenuity of designers, artisans, and entrepreneurs. Yet many of these actors navigate complex legal, commercial, and regulatory landscapes without adequate support. Intellectual property often goes unprotected. Business models remain vulnerable to market shifts. Opportunities for scaling are constrained.

Meanwhile, academic institutions and research centers produce extensive scholarship on intellectual property law, sustainable fashion practices, cultural heritage, trade regulation, digital transformation, and market structures. But too often, this knowledge is circulated in academic journals, conferences, or closed institutional settings, far removed from the industry players who might benefit from it most.

This disconnection has tangible consequences. It means policymakers lack the data they need to create robust fashion legislation. Brands remain exposed to infringement and exploitation. Investors hesitate to engage deeply in a sector they perceive as structurally fragile. And the region loses opportunities to define its fashion narrative on its own terms.

Why Collaboration Matters

Fashion law as a field has always been about the intersection of creativity, commerce, and regulation. It recognises that fashion is not merely cultural expression, it is an industry with complex supply chains, intellectual property interests, trade considerations, and labour implications.

When academia and industry collaborate, the benefits are both immediate and long-term. For the industry, it means access to legal and business frameworks, empirical research, and policy expertise that can support brand protection, sustainable growth, and international market entry. For academia, it offers the opportunity to anchor scholarship in lived realities, making research more impactful and policy recommendations more effective.

This kind of collaboration is not unprecedented. In other industries, from technology to biotechnology, academia–industry partnerships have accelerated innovation, informed policy, and strengthened markets. There is no reason fashion, particularly in emerging economies, should be the exception.

A Moment of Urgency and Opportunity

This conversation is particularly timely. African fashion has moved beyond the margins of global attention. It now stands at a point where its growth must be undergirded by structure: sound legal frameworks, informed business strategies, and robust institutional support.

As the industry enters this next chapter, stakeholders must be deliberate about the ecosystem they are building. It is not enough to celebrate talent; talent must be protected, nurtured, and given the tools to thrive within global markets. Academia can provide those tools. Industry can give that knowledge relevance.

What Partnership Could Look Like

This is not a call for vague alignment but for intentional, structured collaboration. A few possibilities illustrate the point:

• Research and Policy Labs: Collaborative hubs where academic researchers, policymakers, and fashion entrepreneurs identify and solve legal and business challenges together.

• Curriculum Development: Integrating industry expertise into fashion education to produce graduates with both creative and commercial fluency.

• Knowledge Exchange: Regular convenings such as panels, guest lectures, symposia, and masterclasses, that allow practitioners and scholars to engage meaningfully.

• IP and Trade Frameworks: Joint advocacy to strengthen protections for designers and ensure African brands are positioned competitively in global markets.

• Data and Insight Sharing: Using research to drive investment strategies, innovation, and sustainable growth.

These are not abstract aspirations; they are practical, actionable steps that have transformed other industries and can do the same for fashion.

A Call to Bridge the Divide

Fashion is one of the most powerful expressions of identity, culture, and economy. Its potential in Africa is immense, but potential alone will not build an industry. Structure will. Collaboration will.

The academy and the industry must see themselves not as parallel universes but as partners in shaping the future of fashion. One produces knowledge; the other animates it. When those forces converge, they can create an ecosystem that not only protects creativity but propels it by ensuring that African fashion does not merely participate in the global industry, but helps define it.

The moment to build that bridge is now.

“In the coming weeks, the Academy will be conversations and convenings that bring these communities into the same room, not as observers but as partners. This is where meaningful change begins.”