Kwame Adusei had 10 years beneath his belt as a dressmaker in Ghana when he determined he was up for a brand new problem. So he packed up and moved to New York Metropolis…in January, a further problem he didn’t precisely consider. “Shifting straight from a tropical place to New York, you discover out that the ditch coat just isn’t as heat as you suppose,” he tells Vogue. So Adusei pivoted, touchdown in Los Angeles the place he lately opened a brand new storefront on Doheny Drive in West Hollywood. 

Within the two years since shifting to LA, Adusei’s repertoire of items that middle sexuality and androgyneity have caught the eyes of celebrities together with Beyoncé, Kylie Jenner, Lori Harvey, Kali Uchis, Ciara, Reneé Rapp, and extra. 

In his choice to depart Ghana, Adusei felt particularly compelled to place his African roots on the forefront of the model. “After I moved to LA, I noticed that lots of people didn’t have a reference in the case of African trend, although there are wonderful designers each residing exterior of Africa and in Africa,” he says. For him, that meant giving his new label a reputation that honored his tradition. Ultimately, he landed on his personal. Nonetheless, he felt conflicted. “It is rather susceptible, and you must earn it, if in case you have your identify on one thing,” he says. “There’s far more to be cautious about, so I had by no means thought I’d put my identify on [the label].”

In Ghana, Adusei turned a grasp craftsman, working so carefully with French ateliers that he turned fluent in French. Development and tailoring was the epicenter of his enterprise. “Individuals simply deliver two or three yards of cloth from the market after which present you an image of Beyoncé or any person, [and say] ‘I would like the identical outfit,’” he explains. “And also you’d higher not say you possibly can’t make it as a result of clearly they’re going to take their enterprise some place else. I’ll simply say, ‘no drawback, I’ll make outfit.’”

That method to craftsmanship is a tentpole of his namesake label, and Adusei’s understanding of materials permits him to combine the masculine and the female. Whereas androgyneity is central to the model id, the designer is adamant about chopping and tailoring material in a approach that flatters girls (versus anticipating girls to put on conventional males’s clothes.) Adusei describes this aesthetic as a female look with a masculine inspiration. “[With most gender neutral clothing] the reduce, essentially, is for the male physique,” he says. “If we need to make this look female, there’s a approach to reduce it utilizing the identical material; the feminine physique appears to be like approach sexier, far more protected, and really comfy.” 

Adusei attracts inspiration for this method from using Kente fabric in conventional West African marriage ceremony ceremonies. “[The bride and groom] all go purchase that material and take it to particular person tailors and seamstresses to design one thing that they need,” he says. “It’s essentially the most stunning ceremony as a result of all people appears to be like very totally different however it’s the identical kind of cloth.”