By: Emma Wei

23-year-old university student Esteban Sinisterra Paz has no formal design training. Yet he became the center of the recent Afro-Colombian fashion boom.

Sinisterra recently held a fashion event in the coastal city of Colombia named Buenaventura. The Black models strutted down the catwalk with Afro-Colombian outfits, all made from fabrics imported from Africa. This was something rarely seen in Colombia.

He hoped to convey the “Decolonization of the human being” and to show the world an expansive view of “the elegance of identity.”

And that he did by partnering with Franzia Márquez, an environmental activist and lawyer who, on Sunday, will become Colombia’s first Black vice president. She is a big fan of Sinisterra’s work, wearing his clothes frequently.

Márquez is a voice for the millions of poor, Black, and Indigenous Colombians. In a few months, she managed to make racism and classism a national conversation and changed the aesthetics of politics. Instead of wearing traditional shirts and suits, Márquez wears Afro-Colombian clothing.

Together, Márquez and Sinisterra spread the popularization of African-Colombian fashion. Bold prints and bright colors.

Online shops of African clothing are all over the internet. Shops open in Cali, a city famous for its African-Columbian culture.

41-year-old Lia Samantha Lozano leads a hip-hop and reggae band named Voodoo Souljahs. She sells a line at a big shopping mall in the capital of Bogotá.

“A big part of the plan was to make us feel ashamed of who we are, of our colors, of our culture, of our features,” Lozano said. “To wear this every day, not as ‘fashion,’ not to dress up for a special occasion, but as a way of life, as something, you want to communicate every day — yes, it is political. And, yes, it is a symbol of resistance.”

What might seem like a new fashion trend, African-Colombian clothing is much more than that. It is used to raise awareness and is a “symbol of resistance.”