Sustainability continues to be the buzzword globally. People, too, have become calculative about how their decisions impact the environment, and this slowly continues to influence change in purchasing habits. And while the global fashion scenes are embracing this new way of life, African brands are ahead of the pack. One such brand is NKWO, a leading sustainable fashion brand in Nigeria utilising natural resources with consideration to the environment as one of its core values. 

The brand was founded in 2007 by British-Nigerian designer, Nkwo Onwuka. It was then relaunched in 2012 with the commitment to textile waste reduction and traditional craft skills preservation. NKWO focuses on creating artisanal and limited edition pieces from up-cycled denim, made in Nigerian cotton, end-of-line fabrics, and cutting table waste. This has also led to the invention of a new African fabric called Dakala cloth. Methods of hand crafting, like weaving, beading, hand dyeing, and embroidery, transform recycled fabrics by shifting them from their conventional and traditional uses to modern pieces.

During our chat with Onwuka, she highlighted that her journey into fashion started when she was very young. Taught how to sew by her mother, she went from making clothing for dolls out of the scraps from her cutting table to a fully-fledged fashion business.

With an unconventional approach to producing high-end designs, Onwuka’s fashion journey hasn’t been without its fair share of criticism along the way, “My work was very different from what people were used to, so it was no surprise that there were some people who couldn't understand or identify with it. I stayed true to myself because beyond the design, there was and still is an important story that needs to be told.”

Inspired by African Marketplaces

“When I moved back to Nigeria in 2015, one of my favourite things to do was visit marketplaces – both for crafts and for regular fabric,” says Onwuka, “I found that several skilled artisans were the last in their line of craft, with one of the reasons being the difficulty in finding good quality raw materials. I also found that most urban markets were full of tailors who were generating piles of waste fabrics everyday.” Based on those findings, she then realised that the waste found in the marketplaces could be used as a resource – a nod to preserving traditional craft skills while protecting the environment. 

The Weaving Waste into Wealth Project

The Weaving Waste into Wealth project started as a solution to bridge the gap between the growing mountains of material waste – both textile and plastic, the preservation of textile craftsmanship and the alleviation of poverty among women in vulnerable communities. 

The project was applauded by The Sun News Online in August 2021 for partnering with two non-governmental organisations, Full Life Empowerment Programme (FLEP) Nigeria and the Empathy Driven Women Initiative International (EDWIIN). Onwuka takes her skills to the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) women situated in Abuja and focuses on training them in this unique fashion art form free of charge with the intention to empower them financially.

“The project kicked off last year with a group of 10 women from the New Kuchingoro IDP camp in Abuja. We taught the ladies several ways of weaving and working with waste as a raw material to produce accessories and homeware,” Onwuka says. The project not only taught the women new skills, but it also employed them and established a new weaving centre close enough to the camp so that they can walk to work.

Spring/Summer 2022 Collection and Beyond

The SS22 collection is titled Places We Have Lived, and is based on an imagined future; 2050. “We are living in a world full of turmoil. The weather conditions are extreme. Indiscriminate pillaging of natural resources has caused war and conflict, displacement, and poverty.”

The SS22 collection tells a story of an army of Waste Warriors, who are all women, emerging in peace, to teach us how to build a new world from the things we once threw away, and things that remind us of the places we have lived.

Onwuka highlighted that the collection was inspired by the 10 amazing women they work with, who lost their homes and their livelihoods to the Boko Haram insurgency and are currently residing in an IDP camp in Abuja. Onwuka intends to continue experimenting and exploring ways to reduce material waste. “We, as humanity are facing a crisis, we are destroying the planet! This actually means that we are destroying our ability to survive on it. The planet will be here and it will thrive long after we are gone,” says Onwuka, closing off.

The Philosophy of Less by Nkwo Onwuka states,"what is the point in creating more than we can use if it causes us to live less of a life?”