Marcel Winatschek

Made in Kenya

I came across work from Papa Petit and Velma Rossa, siblings designing in Nairobi, and realized how little I knew about what’s actually being made there beyond the occasional fair-trade fashion story.

SOKO Kenya’s a real operation—not a charity tie-in or seasonal campaign. Eight years working with ASOS, and they grew from four employees to fifty. That’s actual scaling, actual jobs. Not a capsule collection designed to feel progressive.

For this summer collection, ASOS brought in four designers to do the whole thing: Papa Petit and Velma Rossa, Julie Adenuga, and Leomie Anderson. Everything’s designed and made in Nairobi. Which is how it should work, which is why it’s noteworthy that it barely does.

The plainness is what matters. No press release about meaning, no guilt narrative, just pieces that exist because people made them well. That straightforwardness is rarer than it should be.