Africa is a huge continent, and amazingly varied and diverse. How do you react when people from the West (as in US and Western Europe) club it all together to describe it as 'African fashion'? Is it even correct to use such a term?
There are two sides to it (when using the term African Fashion). Any fashion product that has been produced from the continent/Motherland is easily identifiable with the vibrant colours and intricate prints creating unique African designs. This shifts as the designs get elaborated and we see a distinct pattern from South, Central, East, West and North Africa—this to me creates interest and curiosity about what the continent offers on all things fashion.
Africa (as a whole) has its traditional earth and human friendly ways of extracting dyes. So does India as also various other parts of the world. Don’t you think it’s time to pool in all that collective wisdom and science under one umbrella and spread it globally and enable the planet to heal?
Absolutely, and this is the right time to collaborate/create platforms and educate the Western world on the true ways of sustainability and circularity as it has always been our way of life.
There is similarity in African and Indian fashion—both coming from rich cultures and traditions, be it in using natural dyes on products or living, working sustainably. It’s past due to owning our designs and creativity directly and creating a sustainable value chain globally.
Tell us something about your journey? How did you come about launching your brand? How well has it been received?
I founded Qaal Designs 10 years ago after getting inspired during a trip to Mogadishu in 2012. I showcased at the Somali Cultural Week in 2015, which was well received in East Africa.
There are tie-and-dye techniques and traditions in many other places [I know of some such here in India]. How do those compare? Could you throw some light on that?
There is little difference in the making of tie-and-dye techniques globally. The only slight difference is the colour mixers that some cultures/countries prefer—two, three, or four colours on their fabrics. In Africa we prefer heavier weight fabrics.
From where and how are you sourcing your dyes? (ii) Are those all readily available? (iii) One risk factor for anything natural is that it could possibly be vulnerable to climate change. Do any of your dyes face that risk?
I source them from Asia and Africa. (ii) Yes, they are available in the market. (iii) So far no, but with the climate change we will sure measure the results.
You have worked with more than 50 fast fashion brands. Would be great if you could share 10 things (or 5) that no brand should do, be it at the point of retail, the manufacturing and of course the sourcing to ensure a smaller carbon footprint?
- They should stop practicing fast fashion (cheap, with landfill effects in the long term); use of chemical dyes (water pollution / contaminated land).
- They should avoid using poor-quality clothing: use more of sustainable and circular production processing practices and educate the consumers on the products; be more transparent to the consumers / footprint of production.
- Stop discrimination; more diversity and inclusion in every department.
- They should not under-pay their workers. The fashion houses should pay fair wages, especially to the immigrants who are the backbone of many industries particularly the fashion houses where production takes more than 12+hours a day. They should include and adapt to the UN Sustainable Development Goals on gender equality, decent work and economic growth, industry innovation and infrastructure, reduce inequality, responsible consumption and production, and partnership for the Goals.
- They should reduce the consumption mindset, less in making proto-samples during development (there are digital software that can be used; I use Tuka DE visualizer, Tuka3D for developing designs and fit before making any samples), reverse the production to reduce landfills.
