On Design
A common question I get is why we don’t do full clothes out of the fabrics, like the above example from Y’oh. Admittedly, I have a couple of my own shirts that feature African fabrics, are bright and bold, and I love them. But something that I am always thinking about is accessibility.
Yeah these designs are great, but I want to allow the greatest amount of people to experience these fabrics. That’s what I mean by accessibility. I want people who have never heard of kiteneges, khangas, shukas, or kikoys to look at Bora Wear and say “Hey, that’s kind of cool”. I want people to ask about the history of these fabrics and know something more than just calling it “African fabric”.
These are bold fabrics. But the bright,vibrant nature of these fabrics should not be a deterrent for people to experience and wear something that has such strong history. We want everyone to experience these fabrics and know that our designs will enable that to happen.
