We are at Camp Kigali, the venue of the 2016 World Economic Forum (WEF) in Rwanda in May, and Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), has just walked past the media center in a suit sporting a bright bowtie – he probably has the nattiest collection of bowties on the continent.
There are other men around him and in the background, wearing grey suits, coffee stains and lazy expressions. And Matthew Rugamba swaggers in, in a peacock blue suit and vest, making a sartorial statement louder than all their spiffy PowerPoint presentations.
The 26-year-old founder and creative director of House of Tayo is not at WEF to peddle his latest collection of Afrochic bowties and accessories that are currently wowing Rwanda. He’s here as part of a high-caliber panel, including former AfDB chief Donald Kaberuka, speaking about youth entrepreneurship and Africa Rising.
“Throughout the panel discussion, I had to keep pinching myself,” says Rugamba.
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“There was a time when people would laugh at me for saying I wanted to make bowties in Rwanda, and here I was on stage with some incredible people.”
Born in England to Rwandan and Ugandan parents, Rugamba lived and studied in Kenya, Swaziland and the United States (US), where he acquired a degree in international relations. In his final year, he walked up to his mentor and advisor and announced he wanted to pursue a career in fashion design.
“It’s funny how much my international relations background has impacted what I am doing now. My advisor said ‘do what you want to do’, and told me that through fashion and design, I would probably have a greater impact in the field of international relations than some of my peers who were going to grad school or doing a PhD,” says Rugamba.
Part of the reason for his fortitude was he wanted to be his own boss. After high school, when he was 17, his parents persuaded him to take up a summer job in the United Kingdom (UK). That’s when he sold toys and painting sets to kids at Hamleys and Harrods in London.
“I earned only commissions. I told myself I would never do a job like that in my life. It almost controlled you. Sometimes, going to work was more expensive than staying at home,” says Rugamba, also a diehard Manchester United fan, who confesses to taking time off work even now to watch a good match.
When the war was raging in Uganda, there were no opportunities for young people so Rugamba’s father had moved to the UK, juggling three jobs at the age of 23. His mother, Rosette Chantal-Rugamba, herself a trailblazer credited with changing the tourism landscape in a post-genocide Rwanda in the 2000s, is an entrepreneur in the conference tourism industry; she runs Songa Africa. She too had started her career at Harrods in the UK, when she first joined her husband in the eighties.
After college, Rugamba applied for a summer job in his mother’s company and worked on one of her tourism projects, using the $300 he earned to launch his bowtie brand.
“My parents said I had to prove myself. So I sold some sample bowties and scarves to two of my aunts and they loved it; they said whatever support I needed, they would help.”
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Thereafter, Rugamba returned to the US to complete his degree. That’s where he delved into the mind of the customer.
“In Washington DC, when you step into the metro, everyone is wearing standard red and blue ties. And here I was, wearing these loud bowties… When I said I was from Rwanda, there would always be immediate pity or if it wasn’t pity, it was condescending praise, such as ‘oh my God, your English is so good’. I hated the pity and thought ‘what can I do to change perceptions’, and saw power in bowties…  All the soft power I learned in class was now coming to the fore.”
Rugamba retuned to Rwanda in 2013 and now crafts his products in bold African colors and vibrant patterns at a workshop in Kigali, working with women’s cooperatives to make men’s accessories.
“The women are so dedicated and accommodating. I bought them an industrial sewing machine to show them that I wasn’t there to just make money, but also wanted a long-term working relationship with them,” says Rugamba.
His design aesthetic is local, but he is aiming for an international reach. There are many things he would like to first change in the local industry though.
“I have started to push for changes in the fashion industry as a whole. There is a huge gap for skills, raw materials and for my business to thrive, I need the industry to grow as a whole. I am also keen on 3D printing. This is also why I am here at WEF, to network,” says Rugamba, gesturing to the sprawling venue.
When you are successful, you attract others like you. And in Rwanda’s close-knit business circles, you make more friends than foes.
Ephraim Rwamwenge, the 23-year-old CEO of Rwa Business Group, also a WEF delegate, joins Rugamba with a hug and handshake for an impromptu photoshoot. The two had met professionally and then became mates. This is another entrepreneur worth his salt – or sugar. Also a regular emcee at high-profile corporate events and dinners, Rwamwenge had emceed the youth event at this edition of WEF, hosted by Rwanda’s First Lady Jeannette Kagame on day one of the business meet.
“I keep telling Matthew he should give me suits so when I go up and emcee, I can say I am wearing House of Tayo. Matthew is famous, his brand is so visual, unlike the rest of us, who sell sugar,” laughs Rwamwenge.
Born and raised in Botswana and of Ugandan-Rwandan parentage, Rwamwenge started his business at the age of 19. He is also a WEF Global Shaper.
He had returned to Rwanda in June 2012 with $1,000 borrowed from a family friend and business mentor.
“I had to pitch to him for support to raise capital. My parents were both teachers, and we were middle class. Then my dad became a full-time pastor and did missionary work. We had a decent childhood but not one of privilege. I had to work hard for everything I wanted,” says Rwamwenge.
In high school, if he wanted to buy PlayStations, he would make money selling lyrics.
“Back then, the girls and boys in school would listen to songs and write the lyrics. One of my uncles had an internet café, so I would google the songs, print the lyrics and sell them. A page would sell at 50 cents. Most songs would be two pages, and I would make sure the font was big, so I would make more money.”
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As an entrepreneur, Rwamwenge now packages, distributes and sells sugar from Kigali to Rwanda’s rural areas. Success has been sweet.
“People talk of low margins in commodities but there is a serious return on capital invested, especially if you can work on a good turnover. So we started the export of coffee. So to the people who were supplying us with sugar, we said you give us sugar, we will give you coffee, and offset the balances.”
Rwamwenge’s company turnover last year was about $1.3 million, and with his investors and partners, he is hoping to multiply and expand his businesses. Up next is a range of premium coffee.
Later that night – the last day of WEF – we meet Rugamba and Rwamwenge again, at Innovation Village, the hip art café and culture hub on the top floor of Kigali’s public library. Everything their generation loves is here: art, coffee, business – and bowties.

The Sweet and  Fashionable Life Of Being  Your Own Boss

Two 11-year-olds, one from Madagascar, the other from Angola, go to class together in a French school in Niger. That may have been their first lesson in diversity.
But if their paths crossed then, in the years following their respective departures to Paris and Montreal, they crossed again, before they finally settled in Brussels and formed a company together.
Urban and culturally-aware, Andrianina Sidibé and Cláudia Pita-Grós, both 36 today, can best be described as ‘Afropolitans’, a word first used by West African writer Taiye Selasi who explained it as “Africans of the world”.
It is to this world that Sidibé and Pita-Grós want to commit Africa, doing what they both know best: fashion. Their clothing company MeyNö, born out of the contraction of Niamey, Niger’s capital city, where they first met, and Noah, Sidibé’s son and Pita-Grós’ godchild, was founded to promote African print and home-grown talent, in the process sharing a rich tapestry of cross-cultural experiences. The handmade clutches and accessories they fashion are testament to their ethos.
“We grew up in Africa; our wish is to make our continent shine by its know-how and richness,” they chorus.
Their company is based in France and they have an online store. Sidibé and Pita-Grós share more thoughts on Africa and its future in fashion:
How did the partnership come about?
Since we were young we were both passionate about fashion; and as we grew up, we both knew that one day we would have to make our contribution, in our own way, to make Africa famous all over the world for its greatness and know-how in different fields.
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Why African print?
We believe that our fabrics and prints are one of the riches we have in common all over the continent. Each country and region has its fabric (wax, bogolan, bazin, kente, capulana) and we wanted to glorify this part of our culture.
While African fabrics often serve as inspiration for foreign fashion collections, we wanted to create our own brand with a mix of these fabrics together with other materials mostly coming from different African countries and, most of all, 100% made in Africa.
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What is the current state of Africa’s fashion industry?
South Africa, Ethiopia and Nigeria certainly play the leading role. There’s a fashion industry for sure. Locally-known, most of this industry is still composed of tailors that do custom-made rather than prêt-à-porter (ready-to-wear), whereas on the international level, so many designers are nowadays well-known all over the world, such as Marianne Fassler (South African) and Shade Thomas-Fahm (Nigerian). We also have strong fashion actors such as first Dr Precious [Motsepe] and also Adama Paris (from Senegal) who have created famous events in Africa like the Dakar Fashion Week, Johannesburg and Cape Town fashion weeks, Fashion Africa, and we also have Brazza Fashion Night, that have widely contributed in building African fashion’s worldwide fame.
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There has been a lot of push, particularly from South Africa&#8217;s fashion industry, to break into the international markets, such as the United States. Is this attainable?
It is true that particularly since Dr Precious has created the fashion weeks in South Africa, the push to break into the international markets have been obvious. We can say the goal was undoubtedly attained when we see worldwide famous artistes such as Solange Knowles and Beyoncé or Rihanna wear clothes with African prints. We don’t think it is vital, but of course we cannot deny that it helps us make people aware that we have a lot of richness in our countries: raw materials, know-how and overall our people.
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What type of investments will boost the industry?
We think that investments in training, mechanization and processing of raw material such as cotton should be reinforced.
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How can policy help?
Africa faces political challenges such as market integrations and infrastructure [transport fees are incredibly high whether by air or by sea, because of the taxes and the lack of proactive policies that would favor employment]. In consequence, some companies would rather buy material from China than from a neighbor. In our case, the materials used to manufacture our products come mainly from African countries (DRC, Nigeria, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast) and routing between those different countries is not always easy. Transportation between Burkina Faso and DRC, for instance, must pass through France, which generates significant costs and lengthening delays.
Government funding for fashion students to start their collections, travel to fashion shows and exhibit their collections is one of the ways in which new policies could help accelerate the growth. We have also noticed that some local craftsmen find difficulties in buying their engines and other equipment. As a result, despite their obvious talent, they struggle to live off their know-how and passion.
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What is the role of young people in this trade?
Creativity! The ‘inventivité’ (ingenuity) of some young artistes, designers or musicians has no boundaries. Just by looking at people’s style in the streets of cities like Kinshasa or Luanda, you realize how creative younger generations may be; and demanding too. It forces the industry to renew itself over and over again.

INNA

Cut  From The Same Cloth

She remembers it like it was yesterday.
A shy 11-year-old girl in a red blouse and black skirt on the Turkish border “in sticky weather” looking wistfully into the distance, clinging to her family’s two suitcases and memories of Bulgaria.
Unknown to her then, as she crossed the border from Bulgaria to Turkey with her parents and brother, she also left behind her childhood, one filled with happy days, endless laughter, horses, fig and pomegranate trees and the love of doting grandparents. Things would never be the same again.
In the suitcases were the family’s only belongings, mostly warm clothes, whatever they could hastily gather before making the long trip, as one of 360,000 ethnic refugees who had to leave Bulgaria for Turkey in the summer of 1989.
“My childhood ended, there and then, in the middle of that,” says Neri Karra, who is 37 now, and owns an eponymous line of luxury leather handbags. She retails in 26 stores across 14 countries, her most recent addition being the Neri Karra boutique in Melrose Arch, a swanky shopping and residential district in Johannesburg.
But it’s that indelible scene on the border that the London-based designer goes back to for inspiration, every day.
Penniless, hungry and homeless, the family stayed in an immigrant camp for a month living off refugee fare.
“They gave us grapes one day, I remember, it was like they were handing out jewelry,” recalls Karra.
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“The moment we stepped foot in Istanbul, my father cried with joy. We were emotional, chaotic, nervous, excited, all at the same time.”
Thereafter, Karra was enrolled into a “ghetto school” in Istanbul with 85 students and no teachers on some days, sharing a desk with three others.
Her father worked as a welder and her mother as a cleaner in a factory. There were days when the family went to bed hungry.
“I was grateful my parents could get me notebooks and pencils for school. I was grateful for the littlest thing. My only objective was to study hard and change my family’s circumstances.”
She was consistently top of her class, and after college, received financial aid to study in the United States (US), leaving from Istanbul to Miami with one suitcase at the age of 18, and graduating university with three gold medals.
“No one in my family had gone to university before me. They didn’t speak English,” says Karra, who speaks five languages.
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Sitting On A Fig Tree
She appreciated the entrepreneurial spirit of the people she met in the US, and decided she should start her own business back home. As a child, she had loved fashion. Afternoons were spent sitting on the branches of a fig tree in her home in southern Bulgaria, leafing through the pages of German fashion magazines.
“Living in communism in Bulgaria, you didn’t have nice things, so I wanted to make beautiful objects,” she says. Her grandfather crafted saddles for the horses. That was Karra’s first tryst with leather.
“All the dots in life connect at some point. My life has always been this way. The trick is to stay connected, to what makes you come alive, and I call that love. The love you have for what you do.”
Karra was only 22 when she embarked on her first entrepreneurial venture, and set up her first showroom at Asenovgrad in her hometown in Bulgaria. Today, she returns to the town every two months, evisiting fond memories.
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Celebrity Clients
Karra works with Italian leather to make wallets, handbags, clutches, purses and accessories, for men and women. She also makes them with faux animal skin prints. She owns a design studio outside of Florence. Her parents are also keenly involved in the business, running her art factory in Istanbul. Her biggest market is Russia. What next? She is closely eyeing the Middle East for new stores and has a proposed expansion plan in the US. She has gifted her handbags to Hollywood star Anne Hathaway, and counts among her clients supermodel Elle Macpherson who she says has bought from her.
Karra is constantly shuttling between Istanbul and London, a city she loves, overseeing a business that has a sales turnover of $12 million. She has a PhD in Management, has published two academic books and often teaches at universities in London.
Needless to say, she has a busy unstoppable career. Is that why she is still single? Karra says she is not averse to marriage.
“I haven’t met the right man yet. I will get married for love,” she says. Karra has a quiet determination about her.
A soft-spoken but confident and hard-hitting businesswoman, yet, it’s her 11-year-old self on the Turkish border that she constantly looks up to. “When I stood on that border, I had a vision. It motivated me to create a better future for my family. It changed my life.” And she would not change a thing about it.

caliente-red-katerina-bag

The Girl On The Border

Without deliberate design, Maria McCloy has been a pioneer throughout much of her career. “People reading your magazine would probably cringe, but there are no spreadsheets and I don’t have a business plan. I just do it.”
Fresh out of university in the heady creative energy of South Africa’s early democracy, McCloy and two partners founded multimedia company Black Rage Productions. It was the starting point of an exciting, ever-evolving career, and McCloy credits the network of contacts that she built up at Rage for the success of her mini empire.
Rage grew quickly into a television production company that produced several art and culture magazine prog-rams, a record label that rode the mus-ical wave of Kwaito, and a website that became the go-to guide for urban culture.
Although she rejects formalized business structures, McCloy is always on the lookout for a new opportunity, and her instincts tend to be spot on.
“One holiday I was home in Lesotho and I met a guy selling wire earrings – lots of people there sell lots of wire earrings – and I thought, wow! These are amazing,” she says.
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McCloy managed to convince David Magwai, a vendor selling jewelry outside a cathedral in Maseru, to customize his wares for her.
“I said to him: ‘Please make these bigger for me’. And he said: ‘Your ear is going to break off, but okay’.”
Back in Johannesburg, some of the artistes McCloy had met through Rage noticed the earrings and soon she had a customer base of musicians, writers and actors.
Then Stoned Cherrie designer Nkhensani Nkosi featured them in her collection. Mantsho founder Palesa Mokubung and industry doyenne Marianne Fassler followed suit. Of course, having the likes of award-winning singer Lira wear the earrings did not hurt their popularity.
“People in the office were keen on (the earrings), so I started giving them as gifts and then those people bought them as gifts, and the process grew organically,” McCloy explains.
It prompted McCloy to turn her love for accessories into a small business. She formalized her trade, selling earrings, clay necklaces, and vintage bags and sunglasses at a craft market once a month.
It was during Rage’s promotion of the Congolese gangster film, Viva Riva!, that McCloy’s dual passions united. As part of the publicity for the movie, she was asked to put together a media gift bag. McCloy took the standard press kit one step further and came up with a clutch bag sporting the film’s logo – and added a new range to her business.
She started selling clutch bags in unique African prints. Even when demand increased, she says, each bag remained unique, as the geometric prints and bright colors of the fabric gave shape to a different accessory each time.
“Cloth had always been a big part of me; I wore it as a headwrap. At home my mother had a big pile so I think it really resonated with people to see it on a clutch,” she says.
McCloy happened on her next big idea while shopping in Johannesburg’s inner city. It was the push she needed to establish Maria McCloy Accessories.
“I saw a pair of shoes, very bridal, in a traditional wedding shop, a pair of seShoeShoe shoes… Clutches may be a bit more specific but everyone needs shoes.
“The whole thing with the shoes and the cloth is that it shouldn’t just be saved for a special occasion, it should be worn every day. We think Western clothes are normal and African clothes are for traditional occasions, but actually no, use it everywhere. It’s beautiful! Don’t wait for the West, because that’s what happened. The West decided African print was in and we jumped on it when we’ve always had this stuff,” she points out, clearly exasperated.
The fashion world’s current fascination with traditional African prints has certainly helped Maria McCloy Accessories. “I want it to be forever because this is in our history,” says McCloy, who is looking forward to working with historically significant textiles, such as Asa-oke, the hand-woven fabric from Nigeria, and Kente cloth, the silk and cotton material native to Ghana.
One Sunday I stop by McCloy’s stall in Maboneng, Johannesburg’s gentrified inner-city precinct. Her customers come from all walks of life – locals and tourists. I watch as a teenager swaps his trainers for ankle boots covered in a tan-and-brown print originally from Mozambique. Next to him, a woman tries to work out if her iPad will fit into one of McCloy’s custom-made journal holders.
As the popularity of her collection continues to grow, McCloy has started receiving queries about bulk orders, and is even considering starting her own manufacturing line. She already employs three people and is on the lookout for an investor to take her business to the next level.
McCloy readily admits that her success cannot be attributed solely to chance. Since she was a child, she has had a keen eye for accessories and prints, as well as an interest in fashion and art trends. And after a long career in the media industry, her extensive social network has been instrumental to the growth and popularity of Maria McCloy Accessories.
“My customers have been extremely supportive… They’re also my muses because sometimes they’ll ask for a certain shoe or a certain bag,” she says, explaining how the range expands as she tailors to the trends set by her customers.
McCloy credits Buti Mabote as one of her most important support structures in running the business. Their relationship is so multifaceted that it defies a formal definition. Mabote started out as a customer, but today he manages the logistics of Maria McCloy Accessories. He
liaises with clients and mans the stall when McCloy is away at her day job, which is in public relations for mass media company Viacom International.
“I realized there’s potential and I’m happy for Maria because she has invested a lot in this – time, her own money, ideas… I’m just there as support to make it happen for her. I’m quite happy to see (the business) growing, because as she grows I believe I’m growing,” Mabote says.
“My wife and I are normally here every Sunday, even if we’re not selling for Maria. It’s part of us. If you look in my car, in the boot, there’s something of Maria’s in there, whether it’s a shoe or cloth or a bag.
“Every day I have to do something for Maria, every day,” he says proudly.
“When she grows, I grow also. And I can say we’re friends now.”
Mabote’s attention shifts to a customer who has picked out a large pile of clutch bags and pumps. Alison Vieira explains that she is Canadian, and travelling the world in search of indigenous designs, crafts and products to sell in cosmopolitan Toronto.
Amazed by the success of a small, independent retailer, Vieira says she hopes to do more business with McCloy if the samples go down well in Toronto.
McCloy is pleasantly surprised; it seems her business has grown yet again.
Maria McCloy Accessories does not rely on the business school-sanctioned models of calculating risk and predicting margins. Instead, its evolution is a result of McCloy’s entrepreneurial spirit and instinct, combined with the power of human connection and a personal touch.

Tag: Accessories

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

The Sweet and Fashionable Life Of Being Your Own Boss

Cut From The Same Cloth

The Girl On The Border

Maria McCloy: An eye for print and an instinct for business