The Missing Link in African Fashion: We Don’t Just Need More Creatives, We Need More Operators

The African fashion industry is buzzing with creativity. From Lagos to Nairobi, Douala to Dakar, brilliant minds are crafting garments that tell stories, preserve heritage, and push the boundaries of style. We have no shortage of vision. What we’re missing — and what is quietly choking the growth of our brands — is something far less glamorous but infinitely more critical: operators.

Yes, the “unsexy” side of fashion.

While designers and founders are praised and put on pedestals, behind the scenes, many are drowning in the chaos of trying to do everything. We are the visionaries, the creative directors, the strategists, the customer service reps, the PR teams, and the logistics managers. We dream up magic, but we also pack boxes, chase fabric suppliers, and respond to DMs at midnight. And quite frankly, we’re exhausted.

The African fashion industry doesn’t just need more creative minds — it needs builders of systems.

We need people who understand how to build order in the chaos. People who can manage production schedules, enforce timelines, build out digital sales funnels, organize team structures, and maintain rhythm in the day-to-day. These are the operators. The ones who translate vision into actionable steps. The ones who hold a brand together behind the scenes so the founder can focus on strategy and growth.

Until we start building and celebrating this layer of talent — fashion operators — our most visionary brands will continue to die in infancy or plateau too soon. Because brilliance without structure is a short-lived spark.

It’s no coincidence that the world’s most successful companies — Amazon, Alibaba, LVMH, Dangote — are built on this exact model: vision at the top, operators in the middle. Someone dreams, someone drives.

It’s time we apply this model to fashion in Africa.

We need to:

• Train and raise a new generation of fashion operations talent.

• Build fashion incubators that match visionaries with executors.

• Shift the spotlight from the runway to the engine room.

• Fund not just design projects, but systems.

Creative genius alone doesn’t build industries. Structure does. Execution does. Consistency does.

To the aspiring designers, keep dreaming — but know that without an operator by your side, your dream will stay just that: a dream.

To the operations-minded thinkers, your role is not secondary.