african

2 dresses for the price of 1

Posted on by Zormelo dressmakers

African print dress with waterfall peplumWhen it’s broke times and you need something new to wear a good bargain feels like the best thing in the world.

Strolling through Kilburn market me and my friend Ash found a little stall where a lovely Nigerian woman was trying her hardest to get us to buy some fabric that was on sale. Most of them didn’t really catch our eye. But then one was hanging from the ceiling and had some pretty interesting patterns on it… then she showed us a bag made of the same fabric which looked so dope we needed to know the price. And when she said “For you girls £15 for 5 yards” all we could say was “Auntie thank you so much!” about a million times.

So I took the fabric home and made 2 dresses, one for myself and another for Ash, completely different but suited our styles and personalities. This picture was styled and taken by my friend Olivia who is a vintage hair stylist. I’m like the token black girl on her Instagram page @vintage_hair_girl

Pictures of dresses up soon on Projects

Hannah.

Posted on by Zormelo dressmakers

So this is Hannah. I met her 2 years ago when she moved to London from Sydney, Australia. I think I was like the 5th African she had ever met. See I had no idea that they’re not so used to seeing people of African descent Down Under. Who knew? I just assume we’ve slowly spread around the world.

So long story short she became one of my closest friends and after my initial plans of trying to marry her off to a british citizen so she could stay forever failed and her visa ran out I wanted to give her something special to take home.

I had to come up with an elaborate plan to get her measurements, get her to try it on and fit it to her without her having any idea it was intended for her. However, after the second fitting she caught me unprepared and simply asked in her sweet innocent tone “so who is this skirt for?” Couldn’t lie, had to admit it and she said “Now I’ll have a piece of Ghana to take back home!”

Needless to say there were tears. But anyway I hope to experiment more with traditional clothes and western styles. More to come…
EZ

Urban meets Tribal

Posted on by Zormelo dressmakers

Ok so a friend of ours, James, saw me sporting a tribal print tshirt and immediately asked where I’d gotten it from. This was last year when tribal prints were all up Burberry and other designer catwalks. When I told him I’d made it myself he told us he had an idea.

Since there have been a few backpacks becoming poprular with aztec print linings, front pockets and straps he thought it would be interesting to use one of the most popular and historical cloths from our home country – Ghana. Kente cloth is traditionally woven in the Ashanti region and is known for its geometrical patterns and bright colours.

Naturally we knew it would be an amazing idea and went crazy thinking of other things we could make – ties, bow-ties, shirts, tshirts, lined satchels, iPad cases! etc…
So this is one of the samples and hopefully there will be many more to come…

Urban and Tribal fusion. Kente cloth lined backpack

Urban and Tribal fusion. Kente cloth lined backpack

Urban and Tribal fusion. Kente cloth lined backpack

Urban and Tribal fusion. Kente cloth lined backpack