Fashion from Kenya’s past and present in the mix last weekend

Marrying Kenya’s past and present sense of style, glamor and fashion is what made last weekend’s African Heritage (AH) Mixer’ a beautiful occasion.

Last Saturday’s mix included visits to the Rift Valley Railways (complete with a train-ride) and to the freshly-gazetted African Heritage House. The “mixer” event was organised by the founder and editor-in-chief of Couture Africa magazine Olive Gachara.

The blend was a stroke of genius on Olive’s part as well as a marketer’s dream. That’s because she’d invited representatives from all the major companies that have advertised with Couture Africa (plus some still considering doing so) to the Mixer.

The idea was to come take a train ride on the Rift Valley Railway down to Mlolongo where we’d all disembark at the African Heritage House to celebrate the Day with AH House’s owner, Alan Donovan. Cocktails would also be served as guests waited for the 1pm train at the RVR headquarters which was just a stone’s throw from the main Kenya Railways Station.

From there, we’d proceed to board the train, which was free seating (meaning the ‘first-comers’ could get a seat in First Class, followed by Second Class; but even Third Class had been refurbished for what are now regular Monday-through-Friday runs from Nairobi to Mombasa return with several stops in between).

The rest of the day would be spent at the historic AH House where guided tours would take guests through four floors filled with both traditional and contemporary pan African art, musical instruments, jewelry, textiles, furniture and home furnishings, most of which had been collected by Mr Donovan while he was still the co-director of the African Heritage Pan African Art Gallery with the late Joseph Murumbi, Kenya’s second Vice President and first Minister of Foreign Affairs.

It was an invitation that was difficult to turn down, especially as the train was committed to collecting all the hundreds of passengers who’d come and taking them back to Nairobi from 6pm, thus ensuring they’d all have the evening free for other activities.

Olive had made only one stipulation on her invitation. She’d invited her guests to wear ‘a Touch of Africa,’ which nearly all the visitors who came on the train took seriously.

In fact, the first ad hoc ‘fashion show’ of the day was under the RVR tent where young Kenyans awaited the train while having drinks and looking super-fine in frocks (for the ladies) and sporty jackets (for the guys) mostly made from West African fabrics but mainly fashioned, cut and customised by Kenya’s young crop of chic fashion designers.