Wandia Gichuru, Vivo’s managing director, wearing a Vivo dress, and the Vivo Activewear production team (right). COURTESY PHOTOS|MWIKALI LATI.
What you need to know:
The Kenyan fashion industry is mostly built on made-to-measure clothes and not mass production.
Vivo imports all its fabric as no factory in Kenya manufactures textile with lycra or spandex in it, and stocks the clothing in its five outlets in New Muthaiga, Junction, Yaya, Galleria and City Mall Nyali.
When Wandia Gichuru of Vivo Activewear decided to go into mass production of sports and exercise clothing, she first asked around for advice.
"Most people in the clothing industry said jersey fabric is tricky and that I would not find tailors who would easily stitch the material," the managing director of Vivo Activewear said.
“They also pointed out that production is expensive,” she says.
But that did not deter her from her plans. She wanted to shift from importing clothing from Asia and Europe and produce locally for local consumers.
The Kenyan fashion industry is mostly built on made-to-measure clothes and not mass production.
“What I have noticed is that many designers first put out their collection then wait for the people to order. It is almost bespoke tailoring because sometimes one person might end up being the only one with that particular design,” she says.
Even if the designers wanted to mass produce, where and who would sell their clothing and accessories? Unlike in South Africa where retailers support the industry by stocking clothes made by local designers, in Kenya, retailers and supermarkets mostly have imported clothes.
“A designer who does not have any outlets, or even mass producing for one outlet, will find it difficult because one shop cannot carry 50 pieces of one design. It can only carry a few of each design in different colours and sizes.
“For mass production to be successful, you need the distribution or retailers,” says Ms Gichuru.
Despite the discouraging initial research, she eventually found someone who was more encouraging and took her to a factory which not only sold industrial sewing machines, but also had tailors with experience of sewing jersey fabric.
“That was my first lesson; do not give up at the first sign of difficulty or challenge. Keep digging. Keep asking. Keep looking. I was lucky I kept getting more and more information to work with, and was able to identify the people, talent, skills and machines to be able to do this. If I had stopped asking, I would have given up and looked for a factory in Asia instead.”
She says if she had given up and looked for a factory in China, it would have been a nightmare. Just thinking about how many times the workers do a sample (sometimes three times) and grading the pattern into the different sizes would have made it difficult to outsource.
The advantage that the designers who tailor for individuals have is that they are able to make the outfit fit the person.
“We obviously cannot do that and come up with a size chart. So we borrowed from a universal size chart, but then adjusted it to fix the African figure because we tend to be curvy. We are lucky because our clothing is often stretchy and thus able to fit better.
“We ended up having a size chart that goes from an extra small to a XXL, but instead of using these labels (which are stereotypical and often carry stigma) we simply use sizes 1-6, with one being our smallest size and six our largest. That way our customers buy the size that suits their preferred look for that outfit, as opposed to being boxed into only size option,” Ms Gichuru says.
Vivo imports all its fabric as no factory in Kenya manufactures textile with lycra or spandex in it, and stocks the clothing in its five outlets in New Muthaiga, Junction, Yaya, Galleria and City Mall Nyali.
“The advantage of not being a designer is that I look at it from a primarily business angle instead of just looking at the creative design aspect of the work. We primarily focus on making what is currently trending and what our customers are asking for,” she says.
The outfits must fit within the Vivo-style of clothing, i.e, simple designs that are both comfortable and stylish.
Ms Gichuru says she has learnt a lot from Zara, a Spanish clothing and accessories retailer model. They do not try and predict fashion trends, instead they wait to see what trend is popular. Within three weeks, they produce the designs in all their outlets across the globe.
“At Vivo we can go from pattern to samples, production to merchandising within a week. I approve all designs, but do not interfere in the production process, as I have a dedicated team to handle that.”
