Heritage

Young fashion designer makes comeback with bolder styles

amolo

A design from the Savannah Bohemian collection on the Tribal Chic 2013. Photo/Courtesy

Sheila Amolo’s fashion eye bloomed late in life. Ms Amolo, who is her 20s, says her fashion sense was ‘pretty weak’ and she had to learn from her trendy sister.

“When growing up, dressing was not really a big deal for me. I started to pay attention to my sister’s style and also look around to see what other people were wearing,” she says.

But after high school, she took a keen interest in fashion. She decided to do a foundation fashion design course at Evelyn College of Design in Lavington before joining university.

‘‘It was an intensive six-month course that taught me the basics in fashion design,’’ she says. However, she credits most of her fashion knowledge from work experience.

In 2010, she launched her brand, but took a break from fashion the following year. ‘‘I’d say it was reborn in early 2013 with my first collection Glamourai,” she says.

The Glamourai collection was shown in one of the eight videos in a local fashion site Chicoleco, produced in April last year.

The two-year break gave her time to think about the path she wanted to take.

“I decided to stop doing fashion because I really did not know what I was doing. I did not have any mentors or anyone that I knew who had done fashion. I put it aside to get things in order,” says Ms Amolo.

The designer who is also a Business Information Technology student says her fashion enterprise is now on a growth path and just like Louis Vuitton, Vivienne Westwood and Stella McCartney— she has decided to use her name as her brand.

“If you look around in the world, most designers use their own names. It is my work so I do not see why I should struggle to name it something else,” says the young designer.

She says it will take her time to reach the level of the global fashion icons but so far, her style has caught the eye of customers between the ages of 20-30.

Her style, she says, is trying different things and does not want to put herself in a category that she would be stuck in forever.

“I would hate to put myself in a box. Well, femininity is very important to me in the clothes I design. They are feminine, sometimes slightly provocative but still easy to wear.

However, I always try to do something a little different with every new collection,” she says. For her, the biggest challenge is capital.

“With no experience in the business, coming up with money it takes to establish a fashion house and keep it afloat has been hard. I have considered getting a business partner to ease the financial burden so that I may focus on just being a designer. I also considered getting mentorship,” she says.

Her latest collection is the Savannah Bohemian, a revival of the Bohemian look inspired by the Savannah; shown at the Tribal Chic, a fashion event organised by Tribe Hotel last year. She used earth tones of deep greens, dark reds and yellow on sheer fabrics.

Ms Amolo’s focus is on expanding the business.

“Right now my main focus is pushing the brand and making sales so that by early next year I can expand the business. I am also working on my next collection. I’d like to launch two collections a year,” she says.