Precious little is heard about the fashion talents coming out of Sudan and so REVout Zine is here to put them on the global stage. Published this week by Fashion Scout and Goethe-Institut Sudan, this very special digital publication features 11 emerging designers whose work informs an uplifting fashion tale taking us from day to night in Khartoum. This visual feast accompanies a long-form written piece addressing the political, social and economic realities facing Sudan since the 2018-19 revolution and subsequent military coup, and the role fashion plays in young people’s ongoing demands for democracy, freedom and women’s rights.

REVout Zine has been born out of Moda Fashion Connects, a long-term capacity-building project by the Goethe-Institut Sudan under EUNIC (European Union National Institutes for Culture) and funded by the European Union in Sudan. The designers now featured in the magazine have benefited from a series of educational workshops and online discussions spanning all aspects of fashion from marketing to creative direction. In total, 116 budding professionals took part in the development programme and now represent a strengthened fashion community who can take Sudanese fashion into the future.

“Sudanese designers are all artists and are very knowledgeable about their culture, which adds value to the local industry,” says fashion consultant Anne McCreath who mentored the participants. “So, it’s my hope that, through Moda, we can build stronger links between the rest of East Africa and Sudan and that designers grow their businesses and networks globally.”

The magazine has been a cross-cultural collaboration spanning Sudan, the UK and Kenya. Photographer and filmmaker Harry Thane worked alongside McCreath, the designers and a team of local talents including aspiring models, stylists, hair and make-up artists and videographers, many of whom were gaining their first professional editorial experience. The visual narrative expresses their story and their aspirations. We follow a group of young people wearing brilliantly joyful fashions as they move confidently through some of the most significant public spaces in Khartoum including the railway station, National Museum and Tutti Island beach. It's their energy, resilience and creativity that represents hope for Sudan.

Meanwhile the written feature, itself a collaboration between Sudanese journalist Mamoun Eltlib and Nataal’s Helen Jennings, hears from some of the Moda alumni, who discuss their learnings, their determination to look forward and use fashion as a vehicle for real change. We’ll leave the last word to visual artist Duha Mohammed, who worked as a stylist on REVout Zine: “For women in Sudan it's always twice as hard, to have a revolution and fight patriarchy at the same time. But young women today are also two times stronger and use all the means possible to fight,” she asserts. “One of those means is fashion, to make a statement they have control of and not allow the system to make them live in fear again.”

DISCOVER REVOUT ZINE AT FASHION SCOUT HERE