Ghana has a wealth of fashion, an industry bursting at the seams with more and more designers appearing on the scene. In the last decade African fashion has become the trendy look to go with women such as Michelle Obama and Beyonce picking up and wearing pieces from some of our favorite designers out there. So much change so much evolution even in fashion, yet Ghanaian designers hold on to that uniqueness that makes their outfits so desirable. The number of emerging designers today is more than we can talk about but there are several who have been leading the way, dazzling us with new designs and colours. Here is a list of the top 16 Ghanaian designers taking the world.

Aisha Ayenu

With inspiration from her grandmother, she founded the fashion house Christie Brown in March 2008 in Ghana now recognised internationally. Aisha Ayensu is a Ghanaian award-winning fashion designer who has designed outfits and stage costumes for Beyonce, Genevieve Nnaji, Jackie Appiah and Sandra Alexandrina Don-Arthur.

Aisha is one of the most sought designers in Ghana. As a child, Ayensu watched her grandmother, who was a seamstress, create vibrant garments and today she crafts her apparel and accessories in that vein.

Kwaku Bediako

Kweku bediako is the brain behind the Chocolate brand, started as a one man operation, Chocolate has now grown into a fashion house capable of handling 1000 orders a month. Kweku revealed that his love for the arts is more than money making him do what he does.

According to him business has to make sense for people to crave for it. Kweku’s aim with Chocolate is to build an empire and compete with foreign brands in the likes of Giorgio Armani and Prada. In his three years career, Chocolate has graced various fashion platforms and has also clothed the Black Stars of Ghana.

Ellisha Boie

Ellisha Boie, is a Ghanaian fashion designer of Fashion brand Boie & Bill co-owned with his brother Calvin. We know him for making African Print designs with Western features, like African Print Bomber jackets, African Print emoji clothes, T-shirts and Sweatshirts. Ellisha grew up in a fashion home, where both his mother and ground mother were designers, Elisha and his brother, Bill got into fashion designing at a very early age. He started his own fashion house in the year 2014. He launched several Bomber jackets which Sold More than 5000 pieces online days upon its release in 2015. Ellisha has designed for big names such as singer Wiyaala, Raquel, the group fokn Bois.

Leslie Wiredu

Ghana’s sensational fashion genius, Leslie Wiredu, the boss of the famous Chapter One Classics. The designer has worked with personalities such as Nigeria’s Davido and Ghanaian icons such Daniel Clarke, George Quaye, Sammy Flex, Andy Dosty among others.

Ohene Yaw Boamah

He is a Ghanaian fashion designer, and creative director of bespoke Ghanaian fashion brand Abrantie the Gentleman. His clothing line is fast breaking the stereotyped western gentleman look with African printed coat vests, pants, shirts, and shorts all showcased on prestigious runways across Africa.

The Abrantie menswear line exudes a strong and unique gentleman’s looks and is the epitome of quality craftsmanship. It only targets men with a passion for African culture. In his latest collections, Oheneba is big on empowering men to look unique and stand out. Oheneba is a true Ghanaian fashion icon worth celebrating!

Sima Brew

One of Ghana’s celebrated designers who has built a name for herself and her brand Sima Brew. With style, passion and perfection, SIMA BREW is the name on everyone’s lips in Ghana. This beauty has left (still leaves) her effect on everyone that has come in contact with her. Her charisma is second to none. SIMA has styled more celebs in Ghana above any other designer.

Her touch on every celebrity has turned every red carpet in Ghana into an awe-inspiring moment. For those who are unconvinced, She is the lady who brews fresh ideas like we brew tea. If she keeps her momentum running, she will be excellent enough and regarded as an evergreen.

Jason Jermaine Asaidu

Jermaine Bleu is a fashion brand that uses its pieces to tell a visual story of modern African culture. This Ghanaian brand, founded by Jason Jermaine Asiedu, presents an array of edgy meets modern looks in its collections and their pieces feature daring silhouettes and cuts, bold colours, edgy style and many more.

One designer who knows how to dress a woman with curves and attitude, is Jason Asiedu of Jermaine Bleu. This young talent is also business-savvy working with fashion influencers like Kevin Nkrumah and Celeste van Joost to get his name out to the masses.

Sena Bryte

Sena Bryte is an emerging unisex fashion designer. Sena Bryte has already made an impressive mark in the fashion brand by winning the maiden edition of the Accra Mall Fashion Fund.

Abrima Erwiah

With 15 years of vast experience in the fashion industry, designer Abrima Erwiah has set up her global fashion knowledge to contribute and give meaning to Africa’s sustainable fashion industry. Abrima’s career took a fresh path in 2011 when she launched the Fashion Rising collection to create awareness on violence against women. A journey that gave birth to a new mission led to the establishment of Studio One Eighty Nine in 2013. Abrima has partnered with prominent global fashion players to activate her social brand, varying from retail partners such as Opening ceremony to collaborations with Ethical fashion initiatives.

The social designer is working to push new opportunities for young talent and create jobs in order to affect people’s lives. In 2015, she was amongst the many amazing talents that took part in the Vogue experience in Dubai.

Nathaniel Bio

That the fast rising Ghanaian Womenswear designer, Nathaniel Bio, is creating a disruptive narrative and pushing the envelope isn’t for nothing. The brand does this effortlessly, with women in the center of it all, with an edgy silhouette, interesting cuts and patterns and above all a fresh aesthetic! In 2012, with a thread, needle and some scrap print from his mother’s fabric collection, they assembled the first BIIO garment in their living room that would turn into a workshop. As an introverted 17-year-old with speech issues, expressing himself was always a struggle but on the day he made his first garment, he found his voice.

Nine years down the line and a brand launch later, the vision has stayed the same, to share stories that constantly challenge our programming and cause his audience to unlearn and reprogram their minds.

Nana & Afua Dabanka

These Ghanaian sisters created their sandal line, MONAA after finding inspiration from their father’s traditional handmade leather slippers and mother’s silk kente outfits. It was a combination of their love for fashion and a desire to have a more meaningful presence in Ghana.

They combine their global sensibilities — having lived in three continents — to inform the overall look and feel of their eclectic brand.

Nana K. Brenu

Educated at the Parsons School of Design in New York City and Istituto Marangoni in Milan, Nana brings a refreshing perspective to traditionally adinkra-symbol heavy West African fashion with her brand, 1981.

Known for playing with structure and layers, the 1981’s presented at Africa Fashion International Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Africa 2014.

Akosua Afriyie-Kumi

One of eight children, Akosua named her luxury handbag label after herself and her brothers and sisters. AAKS stands for Akosua’s initials with an added “S” for siblings. Vibrant in contrasting hand-dyed raffia colors, the up-and-coming designer influenced by contemporary African architecture and art.

Stefania Manfreda

The Ghanaian-Italian owner of Elle Lokko not only manages her concept shop in an emerging art community of Accra, but she has an in-house collection as well.The store first opened solely selling graphic t-shirts, but it’s grown into jewelry made from recycled glass, besides apparel and accessories from another talent of the diaspora.

Hassan Alfaziz Iddriss

Ethical and edgy, Hazza is a unisex fashion line gaining attention for its wearable street style garments. Hassan’s most recent utilitarian-inspired collection named Ashasie which means “the beginning” in the Ghanaian language of Twi. Besides creating his own collection, Hassan also styles for other design talent.

Usman Habib

As the designer behind Garypie, Usman celebrates Savile Row-level tailored garments collection-after-collection. For SS16, Garypie debuted womenswear with the same attention to detail and love of pin stripes as reflected in his previous work.

We see the next trend in fashion coming directly from Africa, for many centuries Africans have been improving craftsmanship, original and new design and division in textile use. No doubt that during the last 10 years Accra, Nairobi, Lagos, Cape Town and Johannesburg have introduced their own fashion weeks. It is a fact that traditional concepts of Ankara and wax print have partially opened the scope by which many view “African fashion” and also young talent from all over the world are actively working to change this trend.