Nairobi

Carol Wahome and her colleague Wambui Njogu only opened the shop are few weeks ago in the courtyard of the Silver Spring Hotel in Hurlingham, a district of Nairobi. “It is safe here, there is parking, the rent is affordable; not like in the big malls,” says Wahome, a fashion designer who almost became an air-traffic controller. “My uncle showed me the airfield once and I was absolutely fascinated by it.” She was also fascinated by taking things apart. “One time I decided that our valuable clock was sadly broken, so I took it apart completely and then put it back together. The thing worked.” Or she would crawl under papa’s car to see what was going on down there. “I always wanted to work with my hands.” Her studies of art and fashion didn’t change that. Carol Wahome, and her colleague Wambui Njogu with a German mother, had a good start in their careers laid in their laps. “Yes, we were privileged,” says Carol Wahome, who also studied for one year in London.

The two have only done a little advertising so far for their newly opened shop; they are hoping more for word of mouth. “There’s no better advertising,” says Carol Wahome. In addition to the loudly elegant red and blue dresses by the label Kiko Romeo, the women offer fashions by Koo Roo, horn and bone jewellery by Maro Designs, leather sandals with tyre soles by Masaii Trends, handbags and, of course, their own fashions. Under the name Moo Cow, they design fashion ranging from the restrained linen safari look to flashy, bare-shouldered evening wear – a daring thing in Kenya, where it is almost considered wicked. Yet they also like to hide the kick in their fashion. “The details are inside, as a good feeling for the wearer and less for the viewer,” explains Carol Wahome, who is convinced, “that fashion is for the wearer, not for the others. If you feel good in your clothes, you are beautiful and strong.”

The women offer not only apparel; the textiles in their approximately 50-square-metre shop are also supposed to challenge their customers. “If someone told you twenty years ago that you look good in blue, you’re probably going to wear it forever. You need to get out of it now and then,” Carol says. It is not as brutal as it may sound; it may just be a tiny detail on the inside of the frock that gives one a different feeling. A little dialogue between the designer and the later wearer that says: “I know what you were thinking and I like it.” In Germany there has been a trend recently to Scandinavian fashion with light, muted colours, sometimes playful, and also inner finesses like a special pattern in the lining. So, in Frankfurt, Germany we are talking about almost the same fashion concerns as in Nairobi, Kenya. It used to be different, though.

Just five years ago, for example, women in Kenya were not allowed to wear trousers in court or take a handbag with them into the parliament in Nairobi. “Back then, they asked ‘Why?’” says Carol Wahome. She and Wambui Njogu look at the recent past with mixed feelings of annoyance and awe. “All of the frocks had to be chaste, dark, blue, grey. Then, suddenly there was Casual Friday,” says 37-year old Wambui Njogu, “for many women that was like wearing a bikini to church.” It still is for many. “We still find these conservative, Christian outfits; you have to look respectable, daring neck lines or showing a little of your arms is considered very indecent,” explains Wambui Njogu. “The demure Victorian ideal imported by the British hasn’t changed,” says Carol Wahome.

In Germany, businesswomen also prefer restrained colours and cuts – conservative looks. There are really not many who dare to wear bright colours and be textile individualists. In Nairobi’s new Moo Cow boutique, they would get both.

Those in Nairobi who cannot afford the fashions by Moo Cow and the other African labels – and that is the majority of the women in Kenya – dress themselves à la Mitumba, in very inexpensive second hand apparel from Europe. But that is the subject for another story.

Swahili of the Day:Nguo means dress.