Showing posts with label Ghanaian Designer Phyllis Taylor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ghanaian Designer Phyllis Taylor. Show all posts
Friday, 11 May 2012
Monday, 27 February 2012
Don't You Just Love Christie Brown by Ghanaian Designer Aisha Obuobi?
Christie Brown is a Ghanaian based luxury women's clothing/fashion brand whose aim is to satisfy the urge "of that modern woman who seeks a true taste of Africa". Christie Brown clothing is made from carefully selected African print, from all over the continent combined with silks, chiffon, denim or jersey. They infuse a modern and distinct twist into the use of traditional African print, making it acceptable the world over; to allow women the world over to experience the culturally rich and opulent side of Africa without having to compromise their personal style, way of life or culture.
Christie Brown was founded in March 2008 by Aisha Obuobi, while in her final year at the University of Ghana, Legon, where she majored in Psychology. Her inspiration to create the label came from her paternal grandmother Christie Brown who was a seamstress for the most part of her life. It is the determination to see her grandmother's name plastered on magazines, billboards and runways all over the world and the love and passion for her trade that spurs her on and after only a few years in the industry, the label is creating a strong presence for itself. It reflects the personality of the founder's inspiration; it's chic, stylish and full of that newly emerging sentiment of the new African who plays on the global center-stage.
Christie Brown has since gone on to win several global awards; The Emerging Designer of the Year Award for the year 2009 at the inaugural Arise Africa Fashion Week in Johannesburg, South Africa. Christie Brown was also the only Ghanaian designer chosen to showcase in the Arise L'Afrique- a- Porter, in Paris as part of Paris Fashion Week in March 2010. At the 2010 Africa Economic Forum hosted by Columbia University, Christie Brown was invited to sit on the panel for "African Fashion Going Global"; a discourse on making African Fashion a recognizable global industry.With many magazine features to boast of(Arise(UK),Canoe 53 Sails, Black Hair(UK), Destiny(SA), Sawubona (In flight magazine for SAA) , Aisha Obuobi, founder of the label was listed as one of the women set to make headlines in 2010 in a feature published in the international edition of Glamour magazine.
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| Aisha Obuobi |
Friday, 24 February 2012
London based Ghanaian Designer Phyllis Taylor dazzles with her 'Sika' Clothing line
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| Ghanaian Designer Phyllis Taylor |
Phyllis Taylor, the Ghanaian designer behind the London-based clothing line, Sika sources traditional batik and wax print fabrics from her family's home country in West Africa and uses them to create ready-to-wear pieces in thoroughly Western silhouettes.
According to her, "Fabrics in Ghana can be very specific to the occasion we respect the fabric and wear it to places that are important. There's one style of fabric that the Ghanaian ladies would wear to church. And then another would be for weddings or funerals," she says. "But what I was doing, taking the prints and making them work for any occasion, was unheard of. In Ghana, they'd make funny comments about it," she adds.
But for every "tsk" and side eye Phyllis received in cities like Kumasi and Oda, she'd get even more looks of need-it-now lust from shoppers in London and New York who love her feminine, easy-to-wear dresses in '50s and '60s-reminiscent shapes.
Phyllis, a former music industry executive, started Sika five years ago out of a desire to export the bold sensibility of Ghana's traditional dress to the western world. "When I was younger, I'd go there every summer and see all the dressmakers around. I always thought that it was a shame that you could only see that in Ghana," she says.
So she went to the London College of Fashion, where she studied pattern cutting and dress making, and then back to Ghana where she hired local seamstresses to manufacture her work. As her business has grown (Sika has expanded into accessories and home interiors), theirs has too. "I wanted to give these dressmakers a chance to sew on a larger scale. The women I work with have been able to move into bigger buildings, buy new machines and hire more people," she says.
Phyllis hopes that Africa could one day be known within the fashion industry for its factories. "Ghana doesn't have the same history of dressmaking that Italy or India does but they're now learning new techniques and beginning to see that manufacturing traffic could be diverted to Africa. I don't know if we're ready for that just yet. But it's certainly possible."
Source: www.vogue.it
According to her, "Fabrics in Ghana can be very specific to the occasion we respect the fabric and wear it to places that are important. There's one style of fabric that the Ghanaian ladies would wear to church. And then another would be for weddings or funerals," she says. "But what I was doing, taking the prints and making them work for any occasion, was unheard of. In Ghana, they'd make funny comments about it," she adds.
But for every "tsk" and side eye Phyllis received in cities like Kumasi and Oda, she'd get even more looks of need-it-now lust from shoppers in London and New York who love her feminine, easy-to-wear dresses in '50s and '60s-reminiscent shapes.
Phyllis, a former music industry executive, started Sika five years ago out of a desire to export the bold sensibility of Ghana's traditional dress to the western world. "When I was younger, I'd go there every summer and see all the dressmakers around. I always thought that it was a shame that you could only see that in Ghana," she says.
So she went to the London College of Fashion, where she studied pattern cutting and dress making, and then back to Ghana where she hired local seamstresses to manufacture her work. As her business has grown (Sika has expanded into accessories and home interiors), theirs has too. "I wanted to give these dressmakers a chance to sew on a larger scale. The women I work with have been able to move into bigger buildings, buy new machines and hire more people," she says.
Phyllis hopes that Africa could one day be known within the fashion industry for its factories. "Ghana doesn't have the same history of dressmaking that Italy or India does but they're now learning new techniques and beginning to see that manufacturing traffic could be diverted to Africa. I don't know if we're ready for that just yet. But it's certainly possible."
Source: www.vogue.it
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