Nora Bannerman, a fashion designer and close friend of the late Kofi Ansah, who passed away Saturday morning, has described his death as a big blow to the fashion industry.
Kofi Ansah, who was one of Ghana’s few designers to have gained international recognition died Saturday morning at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.
Reports suggest he died after a possible case of food poisoning. There has not yet been any official reason for the cause of death.
Reacting to the news of his death, Nora Bannerman told Joy News she is distraught.
“I’m yet to come to terms with it. It’s very shocking because I’ve always known Kofi as somebody who is very particular about his health like most designers we are very concerned about our health, inner and outer health so it’s very shocking,” she said.
Recounting her fond memories of the late designer, she said: “I remember when he first came to Ghana from the UK, he came by my workshop at the time I had a smaller studio and we talked about quite a lot very ideas; what we could do with the Ghanaian print…
“And then we were selected to represent Ghana in Europe so we did international shows in Paris and Düsseldorf. We were on runways with the top designers in Europe. We had big plans for Africa.” After successful shows on the international stage, they thought of bringing buyers to Africa so they considered having similar shows in Africa “so we could attract the buyers come our way.”
Nora Bannerman noted Kofi Ansah was special and his death will be a big blow to Ghana and the fashion industry,
He was 62.
