Gambay

The Gambay website says"... The Gambay project is an ambitious idea developed by three young french men who came from foreign immigration Chad, Benin, French Carribean.

Based on a multiracial blend of cultures the concept has a goal to create a line of clothing, create as much for the South Sahara region for identity or for the modern Afro-black for the pure African Style…”

This brand of clothes is a stylistic interbreeding between the occidental fashion and the fabrics, embroideries and African techniques. Gambay is a line of clothes made in Dakar, Senegal...”


Photos courtesy of Gambaycorp

Caroline Calvin

Nadia Mustafa of Time magazine writes"...When Caroline Calvin arrived at Levi's more than a decade ago, she took on one of the most rugged challenges in the fashion industry: updating the 501 jean.

The company that birthed the first jean took note of Calvin when she developed a dark, rigid denim finish inspired by vintage styles. Calvin, then 28, with no formal design training, began creating innovative finishes for the San FranciscoÐbased Levi's in 1990. By the time she became the company's U.S. creative director in 2001, she had reinvigorated the brand throughout Europe by blending its rich heritage with a young, sexy edge. "Caroline knows how to take something old and modernize it into something no one's ever seen before," says Tony Carnot of Swift Denim in New York City.

Calvin launched new "premium" fits, including Levi's RED, which became the best-selling denim line in Barneys, and designed the Levi's Vintage Clothing line, culling from the company archives. In 2002 she introduced low-rise jeans for men and overhauled the brand's core line after the largest fit test in denim history to create a style and fit for nearly everybody, and every body.

Calvin herself dons the vintage 501s, often for a year straight to inspire a new finish. She doesn't wash the jeans, only dry-cleans them, so that the wear and tear is natural. She restitches them when they're broken in, and replicates the look as a new style for the masses. "You want to make it look like you found them in a flea market and they've been on your body for 20 years," she says..."

Photo by Meredith Heuer Courtesy of Time Magazine.

MKO.GH Clothing

Mawuli Kofi Okudzeto's website says "...The Ghanaian born Mawuli Kofi Okudzeto, realised his natural talent in 1980 after his search for his true identity. Mawuli started his preparatory schooling in Ghana. At thirteen, he continued his education at the greylands college in England at the Isle of Wight and to the American college of London to obtain his B.A. Degree in Business Administration. Whilst there in England he worked in some classy clothing shops on Bond and Mayfair street in London.

He gained some experience in field of designing and decided to return to Ghana to start his own fashion industry being the design of African couture. He found most of his answers in dressing.

He started off with one machine and as he progressed, he employed other people and bought more machines. He now has five studios in Accra and his designs are also found in so many homes all over Africa. Mawuli has to his credit two factories located in Accra with a work force of sixty-two (62) with seventy industrial sewing machines at their disposal.

The maximum daily output is about four thousand, two hundred and eighty (4280) items produced a day. This translates into an average production of one hundred and twenty eight thousand, four hundred (128400)finished items a month, ranging from traditional wear to shirts, bags, skirts, dresses, blouses, trousers, headgear, footwear.

He has participated in a lot of fashions shows with a special reference to 'Face of Africa' held at Labadi Beach Hotel here in Accra,Pret-a-porter in Paris France, Egedo in Dusseldorf Germany among many others.

Mawuli's aim is to promote a strong sense of cultural identification with Africa. His designs range from the trendy young to the conservative older people. Mawuli's designs best represents cream of contemporary afro-centric attire into the future..."

Photos Courtesy of Mawuli.com