FLYPRINTS INTERVIEW KENEMA & CO.

Kenema &Co is contemporary African themed high street fashion label created by Tamu Tomas and Alizé Demange. They are at the forefront of a cultural an entrepreneurial renaissance taking place in the UK. Kenema &Co makes contemporary African clothing mainstream whilst simultaneously helping to improve the human condition. They represent the modern fashion designer, the modern entrepreneur and the modern woman.

Hi how are you?

Alizé - I’m fine. How are you?
Good.

So tell me a bit about yourselves?

Alizé - Ok my name is Alizé and I’ve basically been into fashion all my life and I’m studying at the moment but Tamu, my partner approached me and asked if I’d want to do some design work with her. Obviously I love African material but eventually that’s not what I want to do with my life. When you’re designing you just need to go with whatever but I really like the message.

Tamu- I am an assertive young woman with creative thoughts I am not afraid to put into action. I want to enjoy my life and am prepared to put in the work to achieve this whilst being a role model for my daughter. There are no limits!

So what is the name of your brand and why did you choose it?

Tamu-It’s called Kenema and Co. I chose the name as I like the sound and Kenema is a district in Sierra Leone known for Gold, Diamonds and Palm Trees. Synonymous with quality and sought after. My aim is for the brand to reflect the qualities of its namesake.

Alizé – We added the ‘co’ as well because we don’t want to be totally focused on Sierra Leone we want to work with the rest of Africa as well and the other kind of materials and whatever their specialties maybe.

What is the Kenema concept and how did it come to life?

Alizé – Basically Tamu goes back to Gambia and Sierra Leone quite alot and she brought back this dress, she wore it one time and her friend was like you could really sell that here, It’s really quite in fashion. She was like I’d rather not just import it I want to personalise it and make it my company. Her and my uncle are really good friends and my uncle is always raving about how I design. So I got introduced to her and she gave me a brief, I fulfilled it, she really liked it and we really got along so we carried on doing it.

Tamu- For me I didn’t start this because I’ve always had a create vision in Fashion, I haven’t started this because I’ve had a burning desire to have a fashion label it was an idea that came to me and that it felt right and when I made my enquiries they also felt right and there’s just been a great synergy, everything has been really organic. It’s just happened…. Not on its own but I haven’t had to really, really struggle to get it. It’s almost as if I’ve had this idea and lots of things have come towards me because of this idea.

So what is the social element of your business?

Alizé – Because Sierra Leone had an 11 year war they have alot to repair although when you go out there they don’t act like that. We are supporting various projects within Sierra Leone, we’re doing it in conjunction with the 50/50 women group which is a group which is designed to get women more active in politics.

Tamu- I don’t want to give them a bag of rice I want them to be able to give them the tools to be able to sustain themselves, we could source the material here we could get the clothes made here but I think the beauty of what we’re doing here is that it’s all about reciprocity we’re helping ourselves and we’re helping each other as well. When we go out and get our clothes made in Sierra Leone we pay above the market rate. The long term goal of in terms of our charity work is to raise enough money to provide some mopeds for district nurses because sometimes women in remote part of the country are dying during child birth. Simply because they have no access to medical care

How would you describe the Kenema style?

Tamu- We try to keep our styles simple and clean because African Fabrics are very, very busy, so when you try to do too much it just clouds the vision and people find it very difficult to understand how to wear the clothes. We’re trying to create is everyday wear that anybody can wear from middle class black woman to a working class white woman. We want everybody to be able to wear our clothes we don’t alienate anybody.

Are you the first to do that then?
Tamu- Well… We’re not the first be contemporary neither are we the first to be high street prices but what I’ve observed in doing my research is that the prices that the non couture brands mark themselves at tend to be the very high end of the high street. So you would compare you prices with shops like whistles and Karen Millen. I’d like somebody who shops in Top Shop to be able to buy my clothes.

Why did you decide to target the high street?

Tamu- we’ve decided that our clothing should be high street prices because what I’ve observed is that lots of African label’s come out and they tend to be couture, they tend to be very high end and the prices are unattainable for people who really want to wear the clothes.

Alizé- African clothing doesn’t need to be couture. Anyone can wear it, our market if from 15 to 45.

[Show as slideshow]

So Alizé you said earlier that you are a student studying fashion. Do you think it’s necessary to do a fashion course to get into fashion?

Alizé – To be honest I’ve just come out of foundations so I’m just starting my first year this year and it’s not….. It depends as to what fashion direction you want to go through. If you want to do just T-shirts and printing you don’t need to go to do fashion. It’s teaching me to have a global business and be commercial and fulfill briefs in any kind of sector. The amount of experience that your tutors have,everyone who teaches me is already a practicing person in society or a fashion designer. you need that criticism to know what you doing is right or wrong. Also my parents really want me to get a degree. (Laughter)

Do you believe in celebrity endorsements and if so, who would you like to endorse your brand?

Tamu- I do believe in celebrity endorsements in that for me it raises the profile of my clothing. There’s lots of people I’d like to see wear it Shingai Shoniwa from the ‘Noisettes’ and Chloe Sevigny.

Alizé- I would love to see MIA wearing it.

Tamu- I would really, really like Kelise and somebody else I would like is Beyonce but, if I could create a piece for somebody, a specially tailored piece for anybody it would be Michelle Obama because she represents so much, she represents somebody who’s worked so hard in where she wants to be and somebody who has total belief in herself and total confidence in what she does and that’s what we have tried to adopt, lots of people have lots of views on what we’re doing and how we’re doing it and if I had stopped to listen to everybody’s views on an African brand trying to be a high street brand in this economic climate I wouldn’t have done anything.

Michelle I really, really admire her as much as she’s standing by her man and she’s supporting him and she’s not over shadowing him she’s got such a strong presence. Michelle if you’re hearing me I would like to create something specifically for you! Info@Kenemaco.com

Anything special happening in the future.

Tamu-Well we aim to recreate events such as off the radar and we would like to do something which is specific to us so I would just say watch this space.

We’re also in the process of developing a range of children’s wear using these fabrics because I feel people will fill more comfortable buying the louder more vibrate fabrics for their children. What we’re focused on doing is creating children’s clothing that are for children, rather than creating miniature versions of adults clothing. I’m a parent and I’m not comfortable with my child wearing clothes that looks like something I would wear.

Where can people buy your clothing?

Well if you keep an eye on our blog which is www.Kenemaco.com we update that regularly. I also sell via our big cartel and that is. www.Kenema.bigcartel.com but if you have a look at our blog all our information is on there, we keep you up to date on our new clothes. We won’t have anything new until October when we return to Sierra Leone to make our second collection. Keep your eye on the blog. www.Twitter.com/Kenemagirl your get regular update that way also.

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