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Malaika Designs: When Fashion Builds Bridges Between Cultures

March 20th, 2014
Malaika Fashion.jpg

News from Berlin. “My desire is to give people the opportunity to adorn themselves with my designs and to bring beauty into their life”. Such is the goal of Adwoa Ode-Dombrowe, who in 2010 created Malaika Designs, a fashion label, with her cousin Rosemary Dede. The label is a German-Ghanaian brand and means “angel” or “good spirit” in Swahili.

The result of the cooperation between the two women is a mix between African and Occidental fashion. It combined European cuts and African fabrics, such as wax and kente.

Furthermore Malaika Designs promote local cooperation since all the clothes are produced in collaboration with Näh-Werk & Studio, a sewing studio based in Neukölln where handcraft lessons are given, in order to integrate women in the society and in the working world.

The label is also a product of the fact that, as in the Occident, in Africa clothes are not only a representation of social status, it is also an area of self-expression and self-esteem. This mix between the African and European culture might explain the success of the young label, which has participated to the Berlin Fashion Day of 2013.

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