"Growing up, I always loved good Afrocentric fashion. I was lucky to grow up with an older sister who is a gifted seamstress; she made beautiful dresses for me and influenced my taste and sense of fashion."
Jennifer De-Graft Ninson pictured at a leadership summit in Tanzania. Credit: CAMFED/Kumi Media
Angeline Murimirwa walks the red carpet at the TIME100 Gala. Credit: CAMFED/Brooke Hutchinson
I’ve had people ask me where I get my dresses from and I tell them with excitement, “My big sister makes them.”
My entrepreneurial mind was influenced when someone offered to buy a kimono I wore to a Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED) event. It gave me the idea that I could work with my big sister and other local seamstresses in my community to make dresses to meet the fashion needs of women – meeting a market demand and creating a consistent stream of income for the women I work with.
When someone wears a dress, the first question they ask is: “How do I look?” When the response is, “You look good”, “You look beautiful”, “You look so gorgeous”, or “That dress is a perfect fit”, it immediately lights up the person’s mood, facial expressions and posture. As a young African fashion entrepreneur, I must admit that beauty is not just a backdrop for fashion – it is its heartbeat. Beauty is power! In this power lies the confidence to be, to do and to give.
Angeline Murimirwa walks the red carpet at the TIME100 Gala. Credit: CAMFED/Brooke Hutchinson
I’ve had people ask me where I get my dresses from and I tell them with excitement, “My big sister makes them.”
My entrepreneurial mind was influenced when someone offered to buy a kimono I wore to a Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED) event. It gave me the idea that I could work with my big sister and other local seamstresses in my community to make dresses to meet the fashion needs of women – meeting a market demand and creating a consistent stream of income for the women I work with.
When someone wears a dress, the first question they ask is: “How do I look?” When the response is, “You look good”, “You look beautiful”, “You look so gorgeous”, or “That dress is a perfect fit”, it immediately lights up the person’s mood, facial expressions and posture. As a young African fashion entrepreneur, I must admit that beauty is not just a backdrop for fashion – it is its heartbeat. Beauty is power! In this power lies the confidence to be, to do and to give.
It supports fashion by giving it purpose beyond trends: to empower, to tell stories and to reflect the true essence of our people.
Angeline (Angie) Murimirwa, CAMFED CEO, actually wore one of our first dresses to the 2025 TIME100 Gala in New York City. I remember the excitement she had when she saw the dress and tried it on. It convinced me that I was doing something right, making beautiful ready-to-wear Afrocentric dresses for women, while supporting women in my community to make an income and strengthen their economic power, which goes on to impact the next girl in school or skills training.
Seeing Angie wear that blue kimono dress to receive the award, giving that electrifying toast to the girl child and dancing on the red carpet is the best thing that has ever happened to me as a young ambitious woman who is zealous about entrepreneurship and passionate about making use of every opportunity, both big and small, to create change.
Angeline Murimirwa at the TIME100 Gala. Credit: CAMFED/Brooke Hutchinson
It supports fashion by giving it purpose beyond trends: to empower, to tell stories and to reflect the true essence of our people.
Angeline (Angie) Murimirwa, CAMFED CEO, actually wore one of our first dresses to the 2025 TIME100 Gala in New York City. I remember the excitement she had when she saw the dress and tried it on. It convinced me that I was doing something right, making beautiful ready-to-wear Afrocentric dresses for women, while supporting women in my community to make an income and strengthen their economic power, which goes on to impact the next girl in school or skills training.
Seeing Angie wear that blue kimono dress to receive the award, giving that electrifying toast to the girl child and dancing on the red carpet is the best thing that has ever happened to me as a young ambitious woman who is zealous about entrepreneurship and passionate about making use of every opportunity, both big and small, to create change.
Angeline Murimirwa at the TIME100 Gala. Credit: CAMFED/Brooke Hutchinson
When Angie sent me a message to tell me that she carried a piece of me to that stage, it reaffirmed my conviction that the girl child is not invisible; she just needs an opportunity to shine. And that opportunity is what CAMFED gives to me, to the young women in the CAMFED sisterhood, to the little girl going to school and to the women in my community every day.
For a network like the CAMFED sisterhood, good fashion with vibrant colours and unique patterns speaks to our stories and conveys the connection we share in both subtle and confident ways. We help one another find our power, hold on to it and shake up the world.
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A timeline of the moments that defined beauty culture from the 1900s to now.
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Katy Hessel reframes beauty through untold stories in art.
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A message from Vogue's first Indigenous Australian cover model, Elaine George.