Ocacia story

What we learned about the rules is that there are really no rules. Halaqah Media, the parent company of Ocacia, is 3 decades old. Influential but not fiscally successful in monetary terms, despite setting so many trends. Kind of like most out there, never getting credit for work. From Pakistan to Nigeria, to America, you can find Halaqah products everywhere. 

But when you have 3 decades of work, you can understand things better than anyone. Back in 1998, there was no YouTube, no Streaming, none of it. The rules of the industry were so different from now. A decade before that, it was largely all about talent.  The Milli Vanilli was an outlier in this industry; today, those antics are the norm. And we wonder why the arts are so pathetic these days. I even remember as a kid getting on a plane and being an air hostess meant looking like an Ex-model. Being

10 people dedicated to quality and 1 not. In the mathematics of quality that means 10 -1 =0 . So the tailors are top-notch, the embroidery artist is top-notch, the designers are top-notch, and then it goes to one person trusted to iron a trim a shirt who does not give a hoot and all the work that came before it is ruined. The customer gets a poorly presented product from the most talented people on Earth because of one person that holds to different values. As for the image of Africans matching and beating Europe and Asia? Well, that just went out the window. 

Malcolm X said, if chickens are raised in an oven they are called chickens, not biscuits. People on the continent of Africa just like people in the Diaspora have been visited by the same level of destruction. In Africa, as in the UK as in America, as in South America as in the Caribbean have devalued our own clothes. We have Nike in Africa as our uniform just like in the UK. A friend of mine from Tanzania at uni told me we in the Diaspora have no culture. I forgave him because he had never been to the Diaspora and Africans globally have a terribly poor education which goes both ways. It is shamefully poor. And it was made that way by the forces which enslaved us. The last thing they want us to do is to unite via our common identity. But the Diaspora, just like Ethiopia is Ethiopia and Benin is part of the African world. It is just that we are in the West now. In Africa, just as much as in the Diaspora, we do not wear our cultural clothes preferring to add value to Nike and Puma. In Africa,

The vulgarly contradictory nature of South Africa where their public speak of Pan-Africanism and rainbows does not match their internal policies and attitudes stymies their development. No postal system, xenophobic anti-African immigration, poor human resource management, and poor education halt any hopes of true development. Development is just political rhetoric for token gestures as a patina on failure. 

Every company writes a beautiful write-up on how they are dedicated to customer care. But we are judged only by our actions, not our pretty words. How strong is a bridge? You only know when you try to cross it. And this is what customer service really means. How does a company perform when you need their service?

The African denim jacket and Ocacia: It was during lockdown when a loyal customer ask that we make his denim jacket. We had tried before and it was a terrible disaster. But we are older now, we have the in-house skillset. So we again reached out to our buddy Faisal who runs one of the oldest denim factories in Durban and he lent us some pattern blocks. Now his pattern blocks did not work out 100% and every time we tried to make jackets we failed. And you need to understand what failing means.

Our new state-of-the-art website is live and waiting on you. The most advanced African clothing store in the entire world. Our new site features some hot features such as elastic search, a complex lookbook and our new blog post to document the journey of African fashion. 

Premium-grade final goods are critical to the growth of any industry. Almost every industry is top-down, the most beautiful artwork of any country is expensive. The most beautiful African mask takes time, and as a result costs. You see when the only products Africa produces for local consumption are low-end, it has a kickback to the quality of craftsmanship available in our Motherland.

Afro- Jeans: For the first time in Africa -- African "traditional" jeans blend perfectly with your Ocacia tops. Premium made by hand. African accents, Deep pockets, customizable. Nothing says individuality like rocking some Ocacia African denim. Traditional African jeans reflect African culture in modernity. All jeans are a relaxed straight cut. We do more than make jeans, we make wearable art.

The Art of African embroidery, behind the scenes in a rare insight into African style machined embroidery