LOOKS LIKE AVIDO EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW BY WANJIKU THUKU
Tell me who you are and what you do? How old are you and how long have you been in the industry? My name is David Avido and I’m a fashion designer born and bred in Kibera.Im 25 years old and fashion was never my thing that was just like a by the way that came in my life then I was like okay I’ll take it up. This is my third year in the industry professionally. For me I learnt the skills in the streets and then just by learning them in the streets that’s how I picked it up and then I decided I could push on with it. So, since I started, I never said that I was professional or unprofessional, I was just riding along with it the way it was coming. along my way.
Was your family supportive over your career or did they have issues with it? My family…. Like Do whatever you want to be with your life because I was raised by a single mum, her job was like to do household stuff, she was like a housewife so like alikuwa anosha tu manguo na analipwa for that kind of things and stuff. So, it was like a real struggle since I left school in form one. Because she couldn’t get a hold of school fees do not like she didn’t want to but it’s because she did not have the money and stuff. So, when I dropped out of school I mean, I worked at a construction site because I wanted to support her and to support my siblings who were still in school. So uhm we were raised by a single mum, come from a very poor background, looking further to be accepted back and now its time to move on with life.
What about your siblings (brothers and sisters), were they for it or against it? Or are you an only child? I’m the first born. What can they do? I have to do what I have to do to bring food to the table. So as long as it brings food to the table like nobody cares what you do and if that is your passion do it. So, it started from high school, this stuff for fashion and sketching? No, from dancing Dancing? You’re in a dance group? Yeah, I used to dance With whom? Choppers dance group.
Did you ever do all these dancing competitions? Yeah Sakata…. for me like when we used to dance like I dropped out of school in form one, went to mjengo.did mjengo for 6 months and left it then I started doing spoken word as a form of like consoling myself you know like talking to myself. Then through that I started dancing, I got my teammates and we started dancing together, and then from dancing together, that’s when I was like okay let me also focus now into fashion because you know like my friends they were telling me that they were good in sketching as ideas were coming well nicely why don’t you try keep up and be the designer for the group and that’s when I wanted to learn how to do the designs and everything. What else would you have done if it were not for fashion? What another career path would you have entered and why?
There are so many things you could do in the streets, for me I think I would be a rapper, I’ll be doing like dancehall music because I like doing dancehall music a lot, I have a couple of songs I used to record but I’ve recorded them. But I chose fashion more coz I felt I could express myself more in fashion. Where do you get your inspiration from for the fashion designs? From Kibera, I just want to show the beauty, the personality of Kibera rather than what is normally out there. Were you born and bred in Kibera or somewhere else? I was born and raised in Kibera all my life. I was born in chilanda, went to mbagathi primary school, then I went to higher education then I dropped out in form one.
What makes your designs so futuristic/fashion forward?
When I make my designs, I don’t focus about the futuristic strengths, I normally but I tend to show the real life happening in Kibera. All the stuff you see me doing is to show how people dress in Kibera, how people like colors in Kibera, how people love each other in Kibera, the best of Kibera is what I put in my designs. So how was the whole tribal chic experience for you? It was good because you know I got a chance to share a vibe of Kibera with the people over there. For me, I felt very nice, showing people how we really move around in Kibera you know, and the response was also good towards it, and I felt humbled with it.
Did you have a pop-up market for people to buy and see your stuff after the show and even during the show? Even during the show, I had like a popup market whereby people could buy my products over there. And they bought a lot…
Not Really because the whole place was under construction so I was able to sell two to three outfits and at the end of the day if the place was not under construction, at least we would have been able to make lots of stuff for other people but we’re still glad that it did happen and maybe next time we live and learn. How much is one or three of your outfits? What do you specialize in-dresses, overalls, blazers, trousers? For me I make everything, everything that comes my way because I’m a creative, I don’t choose because you know if you start choosing that’s when you, the things you choose on don’t choose you then it’s a problem.so I normally do everything that comes my way, it makes me to be more creative. When it comes to exact outfit that I do make like the cost, prices and everything, my products are priceless, today Ill wake up tomorrow I charge you this price, the next day I charge you this price, so its priceless. Which celebrities have you dressed before apart from Konshen’s and Etana? Ive dressed people like Wyre, Talia Oyando, Gmoney, Cecile, Christopher Martin, Romain Virgo, Alaine, Buju Banton, Koffee, Dmajor, Future Fambo, Bruno Mars, Ty Dolla Sign, Nasty C. yah!
Uhmmmm na unapenda Watu sana wa Jamaica Mbona and how did you get those connections especially for Etana and Konshens? I was born and raised in Kibera, so like being raised in a ghetto, you grow up listening to dancehall and reggae music. So, that’s what your vibe with or….
So, I vibe with like reggae and dancehall music a lot so getting the opportunity to share my skills with these people also makes me feel very great in life and makes me feel super empowered…so yah!
So where do you see your fashion being 5-10 years from now? In 5-10 years from now I just hope I’m alive, aside from that you know I’m looking forward to changing the lives of the people around me in Kibera because at the end of the day I want to create more job opportunities for people around me. That is what motivates me, makes me feel like I want to do it more and more. You seem to love African prints, gothism as well as Japanese garments, how has this boosted your fashion line? (Like the kimono you wore on Saturday at the tribal chic fashion event) I don’t like Japanese garments …like Kimono is like you can say like it’s like Japanese because you see the people from samurai wearing it and stuff and everything but at the end of the day, it’s still a creation whereby its just a piece of garment whereby you can say like it’s kind of inspired in that level. But I can say I like gothism,because it makes me like express myself better and I’m a crazy person like you know, I don’t limit myself so Ill go a long way as it comes .But the colors that I use and fanfarelike I use colors a lot, because colors are part of our life and they help us a lot to understand life, that’s the reason why we have traffic lights and stuff, So for the colors that’s why I tend to use more of Ankara and as a part of also you know speaking about my culture and also like you know speaking about my country and Africa where I come from because I’m not really meeting myself just for the Kenyan people ,but also for the wider market.
What is your advice to young designers or youths in general? I mean my only advice like you know just work hard and work smart because you know out here opportunities come when you are prepared for it, but when you are not prepared for it, the opportunities will pass you so just work hard and be ready for them and work smart don’t just overwork for the sake of working.
Any last words? There’s nothing easy in life and there’s nothing that is hard in life, everything is just there. So, it just depends on your attitudes, how you look up into things, the goals you want, the dreams you have around you and how you can achieve them because tangible dreams fade away but untangible dreams live forever. So, you need to learn how to recreate your dreams and goals then whenever you achieve them you know which one was which and which one wasn’t rich, you know. What’s your favorite quote/motto in life? Great things can come from places least expected, because that is the quote that I came up with according to my background because whenever you come from Kibera and go to any other place people will be like these people are from the slums ,they have brought prostitution, drug abuse or crime but at the end of the day I was also trying to show people that as much as I’m from Kibera, there’s much that can come from there. So, I believe that great things can come from places least expected. Bonus questions/Answers: Why don’t you showcase your designs anywhere in any fashion shows/festivals? So, most of the time I’ve been selling my products via my website and also in Kibera, I like it when people come to Kibera to what we do there rather than trying to always get your way out as its good to get your way out every time, but you need to do that in a proper way. So, I
don’t just go for a fashion show knowing that I have a purpose and the fashion show also has its purpose to make the way if possible. Which fashion shows have you done? I’ve done like the East African show which happened around like 2017/2018 I’m not sure the exact day but that was the one that I went to, and I showcased. Then after that I also went to berlin fashion week. Then after berlin fashion week I came back then that’s when covid came up then after covid that’s when I went to the tribal chic……yeah. Have you heard of African fashion fair, kenya fashion week, Swahili fashion week, Samantha’s bridal fair, Fafa? Have you ever thought of growing your brand through any of these fashion platforms? Its not just about me growing my brand because for me my main goal is to create opportunities for the people around me …so that’s why I look like I’m kind of moving fast and moving slow at the same time because mi carrying like a bunch of people behind me you know like despite the collection and everything that im doing, I do lots of charity work more than my creativity.
So, you are more of an ambassador…. Yah of my community because the challenges I used to go through in life when I was young ,those are the kind of challenges im trying to tackle right now like everytime yeah I never finished school ,taking care of my mother, I have ten kids that im sponsoring in school and im paying school fees for them and I also have kids whom I normally make school uniform for random kids are performing well especially if they don’t have good school uniform I just make good school uniform for them and then give it to them. When covid stroke up, I made 27000 face masks and I gave them all for free to the whole of my community. Aside from that
right now im also training deaf and young mothers how to make clothes so once they know how to make the clothes then I can look for job opportunities for them or even hire some of them if I have the job. So, my work is more of a community base on me wanting to create a small China in Kibera, rather than going to work in China.
You have your entrepreneurship work, you have your fashion, what else do you do apart from fashion? I’m a brother, I’m a son…. (laughs) Do you have a young family? Yah like my mum is very young. shez still like in her 40s. Are you married with children? No..I’m only 25 years old Its ok You can be dating and still have a child. i don’t know people are different right? You know growing up and having all this majukumu and then suddenly, you’re bringing all these other majukumus that you’re not ready for its not good…. because I don’t want my kids to go through the same thing I went through. I want to first fix my life to be able to settle down and have my own family because I’m trying to create job opportunities for young people. You know the most vulnerable people are women and youths because a youth if he’s desperate, he doesn’t have a job he ends up like doing crime or drugs. And for like women and their mothers if they end up desperate, they end up selling themselves you know and things like that. yeah, and so it becomes hard to survive. Who discovered you and your gift in fashion design and decided to support you fully? Nobody supported me fully, I’ve worked with a couple of people, but I always push myself. Do you manage yourself?
Yeah, I do You don’t have a manager or a team? Right now, I don’t. How are you managing with all this pressure if your phone rings every five minute? You can have someone to handle finances, another one to handle the PR for your company. I’m able to handle all that for now. Has anyone ever sponsored you to fly you to berlin, who pays for your flights? The organizer, the promoter, yourself? I mean like I push for myself to do lots of stuff alone because I sponsored myself to travel to Europe because all that money came from my sales and the sales that I was going to make there. I just pushed me you know. You had told me how much one outfit is…. And what you specialize in? Its priceless. if you go to my website, you’ll find like these velvet jackets they cost like 20,000kshs over there…in dollars its 200USD …And the funny part bomber jacket. I was the first person to start making the first African bomber jackets in Kenya. Fashion is good, fashion is a way of life.
What challenges do you face? Before it was very hard for me because I could start like this idea then everybody is like doing it because maybe they saw me working with Cecile or Chris martin ...now so I do something everybody is doing it. You feel bad because you’re did something new, and you’re supposed to be producing lots of it…then prototypes everybody has it they are trying to do that. So, at first, I used to feel bad, and I got over that because now I’m like these people are doing that because I inspire them and stuff, so I decided like just to focus on my life and stuff. Nowadays I always tell people that I’m having the things that I would like to do like if its things like mitumba. Like I’ll be happy one day if the president wakes up and says like no mitumba in the country because mitumba ni hizi nguo zimetupwa majuu zimetupwa uhm… you know mitumba is the biggest challenge that we have. Mitumba is secondhand clothes but not African …not firsthand…check around the countries that make their own products and
they support their own products like south Africa, very rich in stuffs and everything like economy and what not …its just like mitumba inatuua. Then we do have our own industries that produce their fabrics that we want ...so we have to outsource. That’s also another problem. But the thing that doesn’t put me in competition with people out here is because my main goal is not competition ...my main goal is to create job opportunities for the people around me not to sell or promote. That is what you know like puts me in line with goals which may humble me because it reminds me everyday that Yoh these people their goal maybe is to do this and that. My goal is just to do this because it makes me happy since I’m doing something that my mum would feel wanted done for her and it was never done for her. So, I just push because you see everyone has their own goals and challenges their own life, everyone has their own reasons why they decided to become a fashion designer or do their own different stuffs. So, if you start competing with other people that are doing that similar stuff unajiumiza. Most Kenyan designers are not really designers, they don’t think outside the box. Why is that? Wanathink tu about the mall, not about the getting outside the mall, what is going to happen after that you know. So, it’s you who stitches and sketches? I know how to stitch, I stitch, and I also have tailors not just a tailor. I have like 12 …my main goal in like five years’ time I might have like a big shop where im hiring 50-100 tailors to work for me.So im already getting in the Europe market so im also hoping to get into the UK market ….i can aim for new York, London and by the end of the day now im from Kenya im going to Lagos to showcase a short fashion show then im having kitenge infact those kitengez zinatengenezwa uko it doesn’t even make sense unaona.Thats why im even hoping that even if the president …you’ll also find in Ghana they also make kitenges labda you have some of the kitenge showcasing for them it doesn’t make sense. Furthermore, for me I did not have time to make a collection for the show the other day, if I had time, I would have made something separately because fashion show you know are clothes that you cannot wear outside the place unaona like haute couture, Avant garde just for the runway.
