Where did the idea for KISUA originate?
I had a ‘light bulb moment’ when my friends started offering me money to buy them clothes when I travelled in Africa. Access to African fashion remains a challenge even in Africa and Africans have a long tradition of giving fabrics as gifts. In many parts of Africa, including Ghana where I come from, fabrics are even presented as dowry at engagements and weddings. Making the time to find a good tailor to turn the fabric into a garment isn’t always easy and could become a rather tedious process. Growing up, I would often notice that fabrics presented to my parents as gifts were often safely stored away for months, even years, without being sewn into clothing.
Travelling on business across Africa in later years I would buy ready-to-wear clothes from markets and boutiques in cities like Lagos, Accra, Nairobi and Dakar as gifts for friends. Other friends would see the clothes and attempt to place orders. As the number of orders grew, I realised there was demand for modern African fashion that was not being fulfilled. At the time, I was Africa Director for a global investment firm and so I began to seek out a fashion company that provided a global commercial platform for contemporary African fashion, in which I could invest. When I could not find one, I decided to become an entrepreneur and start one myself. I approached and brought on board Danica Lepen as Creative Director and Ozwald Boateng (OBE) as Chairman of the Advisory Board and KISUA was born.
How will you bring African fashion to an international audience while still appealing to locals?
KISUA is about innovation and always bringing something new to our customers whether international or local. Our design philosophy is to merge traditional African elements with ready-to-wear shapes and trends that make up a contemporary wardrobe for a global consumer. We want to be less seasonal and more transitional, and in so doing be able to cater to local and international markets all year round.
What price range are you catering to?
Our prices range from $60 – $400.
What designers are you working with at the moment?
We are working with designers from across the African continent. Some of our launch designers are from Nigeria, Ghana, the DRC and Kenya. We work closely with our designers on collaborative, ready-to-wear capsule collections. Our design team, headed by Heni Este-Hijzen, ensures the capsules fall within the KISUA aesthetic whilst still retaining authenticity from the designers’ own collections.
How can local designers get involved?
There is a contact section on our site for designers to get in touch with KISUA to discuss possible collaborations.
How do you choose designers?
The starting point was to ensure we had a selection of designers from different African countries. Our first 10 designers are from Nigeria, the DRC, Kenya and Ghana. The KISUA selection process is somewhat different because we fund the development, sampling and production processes. The selection criteria are quite strict and designers need to be established. This is tricky in Africa as designers do not have the working capital to set up their own businesses. We can find somebody either established, more emerging or even unknown doing something interesting on a small scale and collaborate with them. This strategy is more of an incubator set-up, helping designers to be commercially viable for global markets and helping them grow their own names and businesses.
What makes you different from other e-commerce sites?
Our fashion is contemporary yet African. Alongside the fashion, KISUA celebrates Africa on our editorial pages. We work with a network of African and international collaborators on articles and photography of Africa’s thriving contemporary culture. In addition, a major part of what we do is to support and promote African design through collaborations with designers from across the continent.
What are some of the obstacles African designers face?
The obstacles African designers face are the ones we take on. These include working capital to fund development, sampling, manufacturing, marketing, sales and after sales care.
What items will be included in the collection?
For the launch we are focusing on womenswear and we have incorporated some accessories for our second drop post launch. We definitely have menswear plans in the pipeline.
What is the KISUA African Design Fund and how will it help the designers?
KISUA’s business model and The KISUA Fund have been designed with the peculiar challenges facing the African fashion industry and the African designer in mind. Firstly, The KISUA Fund supports both emerging and established African designers. Secondly, The KISUA Designer Fund pays out a portion of every sale to the designers that collaborate on capsule collections with the KISUA brand.
Can you name five items that we should look out for in the store?
Five items to look out for on our online store are:
1. African Print Tulip Coat
2. African Print Houndstooth Skirt
3. Masai Inspired Wrap Blouse
4. Khaki Oversized Pocket Skirt
5. Metallic African Print Shift Dress
What are three hot African prints we should know about?
There are so many! We are having lots of fun with the new modern African prints coming out of Ghana. We’ve named them Neon Camo, Metallic Gold Leaf and Monochrome Houndstooth.
Which KISUA designs have been worn by celebrities?
We are not very focused on celebrity culture but more on real individuals. We have had the support of some influential bloggers like Karen Blanchard from WhereDidYouGetThat.com, Christina Caradona from Troprouge.blogspot.com, Tamu Mcpherson from all-theprettybirds.com, Phil Oh fromStreetpeeper.com and Kit Lee from Styleslicker.com.
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