Blog
- Jun 08 2021
Culture and Modernity
Categories: Dress PoliticsModernity is a technological state and has zero ethical or cultural considerations in its construction. And modernity has nothing to do with degrees of civilization, in the humane usage of the term. Africa can be African and modern with zero compromise to the state of being African and the state of being modern.
- Jun 02 2021
African Excellence
We are not in competition with our neighbors in Africa, we are in competition with the entire world. We are all born ignorant but something happens along the way for some of us to escape that ignorance. What others have done, we all can do.
- Jun 02 2021
BDS: Apartheid in Israel
Categories: Dress PoliticsDon't be fooled, every single business on this planet is political. Very political. When #BDS calls out companies like HP for profiting from apartheid in Israel or artist who makes money off of the system we see how political the world is. During the peak of
- Jun 02 2021
COVID's impact on Ocacia
Categories: Ocacia storyCovid has destroyed the global economy. Many businesses have vanished. We are clinging on. Our greatest challenge during this Covid pandemic is postage as well as a diminished market due to lockdown.
- Jun 02 2021
Business of Fashion
Categories: Business of FashionIn a Video by “Business of Fashion’ (link below), they went through all the steps to create branding, how to work with CMT, pattern makers, sample makers, etc, how to get funding etc. But what they could not help us with is how to deal with RACISM and the challenges unique to the African. 90% of the steps they teach are irrelevant to Africans. For one we just do not have that infrastructure. There is no item of clothing that we make, that will be sold in any major retail outlet in AFRICA, because all (yes all) of them are controlled by Europeans (physically or otherwise) who have Zero value for African clothes, especially those owned by conscious Africans. Despite talking all day about a “rainbow” . Do the fashion schools in Joberg teach you about dealing with racism? They teach Africans how to try to fit into a Eurocentric racist fashion world by crossing their fingers and hoping someone will exploit them as the “Next Black thing”. Do the fashion sho
- Jun 01 2021
Failure To Own
Categories: Business of FashionIn 2014, a handful of East African countries imported more than $300 million worth of secondhand clothing from the United States and other wealthy countries. The used items have created a robust market in East Africa and thereby a decent amount of jobs. But experts say the vast amount of these imports have devastated local clothing industries and led the region to rely far too heavily on the West
Long ago in the 60’s when Africans were starting to look for their true identity and wear authentic African clothes we had an opportunity to own what we wore and keep on going we did not do that. Actually, we have never done that. We did not do it with jazz nor did we do it with dance. We create wonder styles like Breakdance but let other people come and own them. African clothes is a dying industry — let us be very clear about that. I seriously doubt that post-Ocacia something else like us will come. Because the clothes are expensive to make, har
- Jun 18 2020
Price of Handmade
Categories: Business of FashionPeople often wonder why African clothes usually cost more than the clothes they buy on the high-street. And honestly, you can use your own thinking to figure that out. Something made in bulk for everyone will cost way less than something handmade just for one person.
- Jun 17 2020
Wax print: Africa's pride or colonial legacy?
Categories: Dress PoliticsFridays are the day to wear “African print” outfits in Ghanaian offices, yet some designers are boycotting such fabrics - arguing they are not actually African.
The history behind the designs is complex - and involves several continents.
- Jun 10 2020
African Aesthetic
Categories: Design Science“African clothes” what makes clothes African? African clothes are modern clothes associated with the African continent, namely West African clothing popularized by the Diaspora. If one goes back 500 years most of Africa would not call these clothes African.
- Jun 10 2020
BLM? Then Support
If Black lives matter, then they should matter first and foremost to us Africans. And by matter, it means we should add value to our "Black" lives our African culture our African business