Dreams of Kente

kente

dreams of W

hen I was notified about my interview for an internship at Hemma, it was only one hour from the designated time. In that one hour, I changed, got lost, ripped a map apart, took the subway, and finally arrived at 146th street, where Hemma’s showroom was located.

In the midst of the flurry, I mentally rehearsed answers to generic interview questions, as well as contingent reasons to explain my lateness. I also tried to recollect what I had read about the brand – an independent fashion line that uses Kente, a fabric used by the royalty in 17th-century Ghana.

So when I managed to reach the showroom on time, I felt that I had probably exhausted all my luck for the day. But as I opened the door with a key that Edna Bissoon – one of Hemma’s designers – had thrown out of the window, I was already starting to see that my prior apprehension might have been unneces13 sary. Indeed, when I finally met my would-be

by Justina Lee

bosses in person, I understood what the ad meant when it emphasized a “warm, friendly, and professional working environment.” The two designers, Edna and Cindy Gaston, were both very genial and talkative.

Besides, there was also the almostcreepy connection that we discovered during the interview. Not only are both designers recent NYU alums (they graduated from CAS in 2008), Edna also found out that she had lived – during her freshman year – in the exact same room I am now living in (we later confirmed that we were at least on different beds).

FROM GREENWICH TO GHANA The subject turned to that room again as the two best friends recollected how they first met each other. “Was it when you first came over to my room?” An unsure Edna turns to her partner for confirmation. The story that later

emerged even seemed to be a hint of their now intertwined fashionable lives when they began modeling together for FBA. “She would always stand behind me ‘cause we were arranged according to our sizes.

We would help each other,” Edna recalled.

“Not many people would,” Cindy added.

“People were catty even at that level.”

Off the runway, both designers chose completely fashion-unrelated majors: Edna majored in History while Cindy picked Africana Studies and Philosophy.

Despite their academic choices, in retrospect, they could see their NYU selves as budding designers already. Both of them would alter their own clothes to suit their styles. Cindy, who had a sewing machine even back in her NYU days, said, “A lot of the things offered [in stores] were not my style. So I altered them myself.”

Fashion was their creative outlet, but was never a definite career path. It was their Study Abroad experience together in their junior year that turned them from two fashion-savvy students amongst many others, to two designers with their own brand.

And this life-changing location was not Paris, London or even New York – it was Ghana.

In Ghana, they came across Kente, an intricately hand-woven fabric now used in all of Hemma’s designs. There, Cindy and Edna began making their own clothes with Kente, and when they returned to New York, they found that their products of a mere hobby were hotter than they had thought. “People were like: ‘Whoa!’

They hadn’t seen anything like it,” Cindy recounted. “It was something that just came out organically with…the realization that there was a market that had not been tapped. We might as well fill that void and have fun while doing it.”

And so Hemma began. On June 8, 2008 (it was obvious as Edna casually blurted out the date that neither designer

would ever forget it – ten years later, it could be the day of their anniversary!), they had their first meeting in Think Coffee (another coincidence: I had just been there a few weeks ago), where they threw out all their ideas and decided to realize the lofty dream of starting their own fashion line.

GHANIAN DREAMS The first step the new designers took was to defer their admittance to Columbia – Cindy for law school and Edna for medical school. As they then dove into the cutthroat competition of the fashion industry, they began to define exactly what sort of a brand Hemma would be. Indeed, it was never only about luxury or market share.

Its mission – both in terms of design and charity – takes us back to the subject of Ghana, where the Kente used in Hemma’s designs is hand-woven by locals even until today. When I brought up the obvious concerns of time and money, Cindy explained, ““[It is crucial that we are upholding] that history and that tradition and showing everyone outside of Ghana what Kente is really about.”

It is no wonder that when I wound up the interview by asking what their wildest dreams for Hemma are, “Ghana” was the buzzword. Cindy began by describing the Hemma empire she dreams of: womenswear, menswear, children wear, jewelry – in short, a lifestyle brand that embodies African luxury. But the designers’ ambitions are beyond that. “Another daydream of ours is to change the psychology of society at large, erase the stigma that exists about products that come out of Africa, and really make people proud of products that come from the continent,” Edna said.

“Even if it’s not your immediate tradition, it’s still a piece of art to be valued.”

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