"To do a runway in Paris is a big thing," says David Kusi Boye-Doe, founder and creative lead of BOYEDOE, a Ghanaian fashion house. In October last year, Boye-Doe led his team to walk the boards in Paris, bringing a long-held dream into reality. This "big thing", Boye-Doe says, would not have been possible without the guiding hands of the Creative Africa Nexus programme, an initiative of Africa Export-Import Bank.
Boye-Doe began building BOYEDOE in January 2020, driven in part, he explains, by a particular problem in his native Ghana. The country has become a major destination for second-hand clothing, vast amounts of which are imported into the country almost daily. "Something has to be done about it. So this challenge was how we started by building our brand around deconstruction, reconstruction, picking these old pieces and remaking them, reviving them into a new use," he explains.
Khanyi Mashimbye, manager of creative and cultural industries at Afreximbank, says that was what was most striking about Boye-Doe's work. "When we saw his work, first and foremost we were struck by the level of artistry given the fact that he uses an upcycling model," she recalls.
That approach became a defining feature of BOYEDOE's selling proposition. Rather than treating discarded clothing as waste, the brand incorporates existing materials into new designs, creating garments that are both distinctive and sustainable.
Originally published by African Business.