“We approached our business with the mind-set that we’re out to show the world a more refined version of African creativity,” says Kolade Adeyemo, a native of Lagos and the co-founder of luxury online retailer OXOSI. He and his business partner, Akin Adebowal, who was also born in Nigeria before moving to Atlanta as a child, hope that the site’s curated selection of pan-African brands will broadcast the continent’s fashion scene to an international audience.

The pair—who operated a boutique creative agency together in New York City before they launched OXOSI in 2016 from an office in SoHo—were inspired to tap into what they call “the billion-dollar sleeping giant that is African fashion” after witnessing a wave of demand for African fashion and design in 2011. They poi...