African Editorial Shot

It's fair to say that over the years that I've been working on this blog, I've looked at a LOT of fashion editorials. Today I want to talk to you about African set designs & styling for these shoots. Basically you get three options:


Morocco offers a major excuse to put models in as many colors as heavenly possible (obviously I love this since I'm obsessed with color and firmly believe in the "more the merrier" when it comes to colors) with clunky jewelry. A traditional background is usually a prerequisite although markets and desert scenes also fit the bill.

Urban-related scenes are predominantly shot in Cape Town and can be anything from vintage styled (as in the above editorial) or maybe something shot along the beach with colorful beach huts in the background.


Of course the most popular of these is the safari shot! Year after year, elephant and land cruiser after gazelle and lion, the safari shot never ceases to appeal. Colorful dresses, anything khaki, plain whites, tunics to bikinis or just jewelry...they all can be molded into the safari shot!

And there you have it...Africa as far as the majority of the fashion world is concerned. Every now and then you get a coastal shot or the shot with the white model surrounded by black children and/or men in ethnic wear.

All of this leaves me wondering...doesn't anyone who is involved with the planning of these shoots ever wanna just bust out of the mold? To seek out the view of the continent less seen yet nevertheless gorgeous as a backdrop? If you have been to or are from Africa, what other views would you like to see in these types of works??

{Photos: Morocco - Fashion Edit, Fashion Copious; Cape Town - Fashion Gone Rogue; Safari - Vogue India}