We love when women do super amazing things and The phenomenal Amaka Osakwe has set the bar high with her global women’s wear brand Maki Oh.
Just in case you didn’t know, Amaka Osakwe is a Nigerian fashion designer and creator of the African-based fashion label named Maki Oh. She has led her women’s wear label since 2010 from Lagos, and it is one of the Nigerian-based brands to be globally acknowledged.
Maki Oh was launched In 2010, Inspired by rural Ghana’s Dipo rites-of-passage ceremony, during which girls taking part are partially naked and ornately adorned
Her uniquely crafted designs also have been worn by Mrs. Michelle Obama, Lupita N’yongo, Solange Knowles, Leelee Sobieski, Alek Wek, Thandie Newton, Azaelia Banks and more. One signature of her brand is that it’s dyed by hand using the traditional textile arte process Adire. Another is her way of combining Western silhouettes and native materials and motifs—to wit, a lace-blouse-and-pencil-skirt set appliquéd with unsettling raffia eyeballs
Maki Oh fuses traditional African techniques with detailed contemporary construction. The Maki Oh design ethos challenges prevailing notions of beauty and analyses cultural norms through a womanist lens. The brand is centred in a strong sense of identity and culture, creating narrative pieces that function as direct channels of communication. The Maki Oh vision extends beyond physical beauty to a textured, layered, and three-dimensional aesthetic, embodying the philosophies of sustainability, preservation, strength and complex simplicity.
Maki Oh was the first and only Africa-based designer to be invited to the White House. Maki Oh was also one of two Africans to become a finalist in the first LVMH Prize for Young Fashion Designers.
