Building Creative Ecosystems: The Case of FashionEVO at Africa Creative Market
In the African creative industries, partnerships are rarely about signing a contract and shaking hands. They are built on shared histories, sustained trust, and a willingness to invest in each other’s visions over time. The partnership between FashionEVO and the Africa Creative Market (ACM) illustrates this truth with striking clarity, not only because of the initiatives it supports today, but because of the relationships and collaborative instincts that made it possible in the first place.
At first glance, the partnership looks like a straightforward alignment: FashionEVO, a platform dedicated to pan-African fashion, culture, and lifestyle, joins forces with ACM, a convening platform that champions African creativity across disciplines, to co host a summit and showcase during ACM’s 2025 edition in Lagos (September 16–19). Yet beneath the event schedule and the press releases lies a more complex story of how ecosystems are built in Africa; patiently, relationally, and with an eye toward the future.
A History of Collaboration
The roots of this partnership stretch beyond FashionEVO and ACM. They are also grounded in the longstanding professional and personal relationship between Dr. Inya Lawal, convener of ACM and founder of the Ascend Studios Foundation, and Dr. Yetty Ogunnubi, founder of FashionEVO and principal at The YD Company. The two women have not only been close friends, but successful collaborators across multiple initiatives.
Their collaborations include the Science of Trade conference, a recurring platform that explores trade and business linkages within Africa and beyond, as well as earlier editions of ACM. The YD Company, Dr. Ogunnubi’s PR and communications agency, also serves as the official communications partner for several of Dr. Lawal’s initiatives, including those under the Ascend Studios Foundation banner. What this creates is not a one off collaboration, but a layered network of trust where responsibilities, values, and ambitions have already been tested over time.
This backdrop matters because it reveals how the FashionEVO x ACM partnership is not accidental. It is the product of repeated collaboration, shared stakes in the success of creative ventures, and an understanding that working together yields stronger outcomes than working in silos.
The Role’s to Play
For FashionEVO, the partnership with ACM is an opportunity to amplify its mission of telling nuanced, pan-African stories about fashion and culture. By anchoring a dedicated summit and showcase within the ACM program, FashionEVO is not only curating conversations about African fashion’s future, it is also bridging the gap between digital storytelling and physical convening.
FashionEVO’s editorial voice has consistently emphasized fashion’s role in cultural identity, heritage preservation, and global positioning. Translating that voice into a summit format allows it to influence stakeholders across design, manufacturing, media, and investment in real time. The showcase, meanwhile, creates a stage for brands to embody the narratives that FashionEVO has long championed: innovation rooted in heritage, aesthetics informed by cultural context, and creativity as a driver of economic growth.
On ACM’s side, the partnership fits within its broader ambition of building infrastructure for Africa’s creative economy. Since its inception, ACM has been designed as a meeting point where artists, entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers, and cultural institutions converge. By welcoming FashionEVO into its programming, ACM strengthens its fashion and lifestyle pillar while also broadening the reach of its storytelling.
This is where ACM’s relationship driven model comes into focus. Unlike platforms that rely solely on institutional backing, ACM thrives on the personal networks and long term trust cultivated by its leadership. Dr. Inya Lawal’s work through Ascend Studios Foundation (spanning creative development, skills training, and international linkages) feeds directly into ACM’s programming. The consistency of this vision, sustained across multiple initiatives and partnerships, gives ACM credibility as more than an event: it is a hub that keeps adding branches to a growing ecosystem.
A Model for Partnership
What makes the FashionEVO x ACM collaboration particularly instructive is how it demonstrates partnership as a process rather than a transaction. Too often in the African creative economy, collaborations collapse under the weight of competing interests or short term thinking. Here, the inverse is true. The partnership rests on trust, forged through years of collaboration between the two founders and their organizations, shared history of past projects (like Science of Trade or earlier ACM editions) provide evidence of successful co creation, and aligned vision of a commitment to elevating African creativity globally, not just as cultural expression but as an economic force.
These three factors provide a useful case study for how other creative sectors can structure partnerships. They show that sustainability comes from layering relationships, not rushing to scale. They also highlight the importance of personal bonds, the kind that allow partners to anticipate each other’s needs, navigate challenges with empathy, and remain committed even when external conditions shift.
Looking Ahead
As Africa Creative Market 2025 approaches, the tangible outputs of the FashionEVO x ACM partnership will come into view: the summit, the pop up boutique and sessions, the fashion show and awards, the conversations, and the coverage. But its real significance lies beyond this year’s program. It is a story about how African creatives build durable ecosystems, not by copying models from elsewhere, but by designing networks that reflect their own realities: flexible, relational, and deeply collaborative.
The friendship between Dr. Lawal and Dr. Ogunnubi may have sparked this particular alignment, but the lesson extends far beyond two individuals. It points to a future where African creative industries are sustained by webs of trust, cross pollination between initiatives, and a shared understanding that the growth of one strengthens the whole.
In that sense, the FashionEVO x ACM partnership is not simply about co-hosting a summit in Lagos. It is about showing what becomes possible when collaboration is treated as an ecosystem building practice. A practice that honors the past, shapes the present, and lays the groundwork for futures still to come.
