Suno's Spring/Summer 2010 Collection
For San Francisco native Max Osterweis, what began as trips to visit his mother in Kenya has turned into Suno, a womenswear label produced in the East African country and armed with a mission to make a difference. “I started Suno as a direct reaction to the post-election violence that took place in Kenya a couple of years ago. I wanted to do something visible in a place that I loved in a way that could potentially have a lasting and meaningful positive impact,” Osterweis says.
With its rich history and culture, Kenya isn’t short of sources for inspiration. "There is so much beauty in Kenya that I barely know where to begin, except that maybe ultimately it is the nature there that I am most inspired by,” says Osterweis, who has also been collecting brilliantly collored vintage African kangas (printed cotton fabrics) for the past decade. For Suno’s Spring/Summer ’10 collection (the brand's debut collection debuted in Spring/Summer '09 at headline-making boutique Opening Ceremony), this called for easy plaid shirtdresses, yellow harem shaped pants, breezy tie dye dresses and a generous helping of eye-popping prints created using dyeing techniques indigenous to Kenya.
Osterweis works in New York, where Suno’s design and development take place, and his fetching styles are utterly wearable for even the most fastidious city dweller. Osterweis notes that both geographically and culturally, Manhattan is worlds apart from Suno's Kenyan manufacturing base. Traffic in Narobi is so intense that he takes advantage of inevitable long car trips and falls asleep the minute he gets in a car as a passenger; power and water shortages are daily occurrences; and the pollution is so bad that it causes a mild cough. “The first week I was working in Nairobi I, found a snake in my bedroom—it looked like a mamba, but turned out to be a common brown house snake,” says Osterweis.
Despite the setbacks and frequent travel, Osterweis feels that working in Kenya is critical to his vision for Suno. “My favorite part is that I have seen our tailors' skills improve tremendously over the course of just our first year. We've also tripled our workforce there in the same time,” says Osterweis. Of photograhs of the First Lady wearing a Suno tunic purchased from her go-to Chicago boutique Ikram last summer, he notes “It was also wonderfully emotional sharing photos of Michelle Obama wearing clothing that we had made in our little workshop on the outskirts of Nairobi.”
The emergence of Suno seems timely amid the rising interest of African made and inspired items. “I think that people's concern for the environment, for the United Nations Milleniumn Development goals to reduce extreme poverty, and for handmade, one-of-a-kind items, and for a larger understanding of what constitutes beauty, all contribute to the widening of appeal of African art,” explains Elizabeth Bennett, proprietor of Africa Direct, an African art and artifact ecommerce retailer with a thriving eBay store. “Our sales have been over a million a year for the past five years. 2009 website sales were down slightly (though less than 10% which is largely due to economic slowdown) but our eBay sales were up,” Bennet says of the demand.
Africa is having a moment in mainstream fashion as well. Rodarte's Spring/Summer 2010 show featured models parading down the runway with tribal marks painted on their skin, and we've already noted the abundance of traditional tribal prints on the spring runways of Dries van Noten, Marc by Marc Jacobs and Diane von Furstenberg.
To inject a touch of Africa into your life,
here are Osterweis’ favorite items from eBay.
1. African Beaded Waist Cloth (buy it now price, $26) “This is just a cool object.”
2. Antique Architectural Drafting Table (buy it now price, $1,795)
“I would love to be drawing more and if I were, I'd love to be drawing on this table.”
3. Vintage Christian Dior Bendable Dress (buy it now price, $245) “It looks amazing, even if the picture is small.”
4. African Kente Cloth (buy it now price, $275) “Although kente cloth may have been played out in popular culture a while ago, here's a beautiful example in gorgeous colors.”
5. Dries Van Noten Skirt (buy it now price, $355) “Ebay does have some amazing fashion. Dries Van Noten is one of my favorites.”
6. Authentic African Zebra Head Mount (sold for $895) “A zebra head. I love zebras and think they are beautiful (even on a wall).”
7. Vintage Yves Saint Laurent Safari Jacket (buy it now price, $498) “I can't believe this is available. Why hasn't someone picked this up already?”
Robert Cordero is editor at JC Report, an influential online global style publication, where he also works on the new media company's business development and marketing initiatives.
