Red embodies passion, as much as fashion can spell emotions. Despite the natural sources of inspiration designers use to create, the heart sometimes rules the art of fashion. Whether it’ s desire, love, anger or mystery, every color, every textile, every print will sink deep into the eyes and will electrify a certain emotion either in the person wearing the designer’s masterpiece, or the person watching you move in it.

There is always a reason why people identify a short tight skirt to be sexy or hot. There is, in that sense, a show off of something that plugs in a certain feeling in the person viewing it. Might be that the woman’s legs are beautiful (ikibero cyiza) and she wears the skirt so well that you may think it was designed mainly for her. The fashion of that skirt either made a man staring at her burn with desire, while it only made the woman wearing it tread with pride and confidence because she feels beautiful in it. Fashion is able to create much more than just a style of a piece of cloth; it is able to create a feeling in both the viewers and the owners, and maybe that feeling was the one that even the designer had when he/she was designing it and allowed it to sink in as an inspiration.

Fashion tells more than just how a cloth fits you well enough to walk on the streets, and be called pretty or handsome or hot (ikizungerezi); it tells about what feeling you want to give to the world around you, and it is much similar to the feeling the designer wanted to offer the people. As much as the season affect the environment, fashion is also more likely to affect people’s feelings towards you. Put on a suit and get on the professional walk with an All-about-business look, and see how people start seeing success in you with respect. You are giving the world a sip of motivation and the Work-hard minds. It is like you are being a messenger of the designer. You are passing a letter that the designer wrote when he was making that suit.

Whether you want to make eyes turn with thrill in them when you wear your yellow cocktail dress, whether you want to let your mystery and elegance rule by wearing ten shades of black, there is a story the designer wanted to share when he/she slipped a pencil on a paper to draw that cloth. It is the sentiment you are sliding in the people around you that inspired the designer.

There is something about nature that has created fashion itself. The color of the sunset, the allure of the autumn leaves and the lights that blow cities up. Everything that surrounds us is a source of inspiration to most designers.

We have seen amazing color combinations and pattern collections that designers use and thought it was just an imagination. Yes it is, but it all comes from what they once seen out in the world, in the streets, in a garden. Nature interacts with human beings at the point it even becomes a source of ideas for fashion and art. Some were inspired by the beauty of women’s body, the skin tone and the eyes; some the color of the sky at 5AM in the morning and the red full moon. The color mashup has always been an essential type of art when it comes to fashion; how relatable they are with the season and the suitable events themselves. African fashion has identified the most with natural colors like the brown of the tree branches, the green of the grasses and the animal skins (Impu). This shows how African designers fetch inspirations from what surrounds them with purity and originality.

Luxury and venues have also played a very important role in the designing field. Designers look at who they are designing for and get the inspiration even from the venues they expect the ceremonies to take place at. The consideration of the shining chandeliers in ballrooms and the type of event even if it is cultural or casual can be a focus for them. Designers play with each and every detail that influences their designs and end up creating what we call fashion masterpieces.

Joselyne Umutoniwase has been inspired by our culture and features that make up the beauty we have as Africans. Get inspired by what surrounds you to hit up the most artistic fashion of the time.

The ideas and opinions of people, from other parts of the world, about the African fashion matter. They either let us know where to improve or where we are towards the greatest success and fame in the fashion industry internationally. A trip abroad can make you learn clearly if African fashion can prosper around the world or not.

On a Tuesday in my precollege summer program at New Jersey Institute of technology, I wore a blue faintly transparent blouse with a Kitenge collar just to test if anyone would compliment it. At the end of the day 5 people including 1 boy had noticed that it was an African design and had loved it. It felt like they not only complimented me but the whole African fashion at large. The whole importance of marking an African identity in whatever you do and wear is that it makes you and your background shine among others.

I asked one of my classmates in that program what she knew about the African fashion, and she responded that she had seen some dashiki shirts and sadly doesn’t know where to buy them. All that made me blissful that at least people overseas know about us and are hungry to buy African fashion products. That’s when I knew we are touching the success and fame of our work in Fashion.

This is a goal that RWANDA CLOTHING is aiming at: fame and success… It wants to expand and be able to touch a large population and impacting them with fashion that reflects Africa as an inspiration.

African empires have had their own marks in their clothing ways. It was commonly jungle like. It was a pure sense of culture that was unmixed or impurified by any other culture from overseas. Is it worth it for the African Designers to stay holding on the African native fashion?

It is a true opinion that the Amasunzu hairstyle was a masterpiece from the ancestors of Rwanda. It was an original and creative piece of art that solidified the native Rwandans’ beauty. It naturally distinguished a Rwandan from any other person from another background. This is a sign that from a long time ago, Africans had a potential for creativity while marking their identities in how they look like. This is why African designers ought to trust in the taste of African Fashion and hold on to it.

There is nothing better than marking a unique Identity, with which anyone would identify you and distinguish you from any other. And Africa at large will need to cling on its native cultural clothing to draw a sign of what an African fashion is. Even though civilization has favored us in making more than we could have made with only animal skins, designers would better not try to imitate what Alexander McQueen does, because there will always be one Alexander, and it will be like hiding yourself in someone’s shadow while that person is in the spotlight of fame. We have choices today, and we can make the best out of it. We can stay cultural or we can even mix cultures.

RWANDA CLOTHING has started the journey of building a good name for the African Fashion. Help it become one of the best well known Fashion Brands that will help Rwanda and Africa at large become iconic in the fashion industry.

It is summer, but walking in the streets with your back and waist out is like a taboo in Africa. The look people throw at you would paralyse your limbs. Showing a great part of your body as your ancestors is no longer perceived as a cultural deed, instead it is a moral threat. Europeans who used to see that as a taboo in the Victorian Era are now the ones who wear like we used to centuries ago when it comes to a season like this. They make the best out of it.

The young generation of Rwanda loves the fashion trends of the western countries. It has been motivated by the fashion shows on TV, and the pictures on pinterest and tumblr. But there is a huge boundary set by the previous generation that is ruled by religious moral ethics, and they are their parents, uncles and aunts, who they have to respect at the end of the day. It seems like more of an offense to the society when a girl steps out her room with too much skin revealed; any old person would call you “umushizi w’isoni” (a girl that lacks morals). Didn’t the ancient people of Rwanda have morals even though their way of dressing was revealing? Why is it shameful, today, to wear something that allows your skin, body, to take part in your style in such a season? The morals of today is limiting the fashion of Africa for no use at all. And It is not about being completely or half naked, it is about how open minded and flexible the society should be when it comes to a season like summer.

Fashion of today takes steps forward monthly; it goes as fast as technology. It has become a mixture and a divergence from culture to culture which sparks out a lot of open minds and diversities. Designers are not holding on to the Impu and Amasunzu styles, they have decided to look beyond the culture of Rwanda and opened up for whatever self-created style they could afford to design. But what if the only obstacle left is the clinging on ethics of the previous generation full of style taboos? Don’t you think that fashion in Rwanda would still be even better than it is? Africans are letting the European and American fashion go beyond theirs because of the boundaries they put up when it comes to what to wear.

There is a complication of models in Africa, especially in Rwanda, who refuse to wear anything that reveals their bodies for the catwalks and photoshoots (shout out to those who go for it!). But what would fashion be if bodies did not exist? The society should change for the fashion to also change. As much as they make the rules and taboos, they can as well change them and perceive things with an open-mindset.

Do you think that the Rwandan/African society should allow the new generation to go for whatever goes with what’s trending, the season, and self expression? Give your views and RWANDA CLOTHING will hear your voice.

Going back in time, Rwandans wore Impu (animal skin) and leaves to hide only their intimate parts. It was the pureness of their dressing culture where even most of their skin took part in their style. But coming to the latest decades, the Rwandan style evolution has been a mix of native African style and the modernization imported from colonization by Europe leaving Rwandans covering the whole of their bodies.

The Impu and leaves used to cover women’s thighs, falling right below their backsides (behinds), and enfolding their breasts, while leaving their legs and bellies out. It all portrayed the beauty of a woman as it is, and if brought back, many of us would perceive it as “sexy”.

Today, things have changed and most especially the styles. Rwandese are nowadays conservative when it comes to what to wear. Even though few people could have any objection about today’s fashion revolutions, it could still be arguable if the ancient Rwandan styles or ways of dressing were more attractive than the fashion of today. So what do you think about it as someone who got the eye of what gets people’s attention?

Fashion makes beauty, attraction and entertainment for people around while preserving culture. Imagine if Rwanda could still hold on to the natives of our culture while making styles. How better would that be? Rwandan men and women (especially models) showing us the value they give to our ancient fashion, and how much respect and enjoyment they give it while being confident about their bodies, and not seeing any immorality in that. It would be marking our own identities in what we wear.

Confidence makes sexy. It is only a question of the society to be open and flexible when it comes to letting go and showing some skin as our great grandparents. Moreover, today we know how to take care of our bodies; we can do as much as we can to make ourselves beautiful. So, imagine if girls would still wrap Impu portions about their hips and breasts, and men tying them only around their waists falling right below their backsides to leave their torsos and legs out. What could be sexier than that? Designers would develop from what was made in the early ages by putting in their creatives while having a growth mindset about it.

Or do you think today’s styles that doesn’t show much skin are more attractive than the early years styles? Help RWANDA CLOTHING know what you want to see on the runway fashion shows and photo-shoots, and what you think could be the most attractive fashion Era by giving your opinions in comments and sharing.