Hi. I am Miho.  My partners Ashley, Nicole, and I are in the class of Technical Design to learn elements used in the mass production of clothing in Lindenwood University. We are divided by groups to choose an existing company; study its history, design philosophy, and customer base; and design a collection for a specific season including spec sheets and technical packages for practical application. In the first class, we watched the documentary called “the True Cost” which showed us how fast fashion companies makes people work way too much with little salary (sometimes they just get $2 a day) in developing countries to make cheap clothing. To be aware of the fact that it is happening while we are buying these cheap clothing, we decided to choose a company that cares about fare trades, which is ASOS Africa.

 

tailor mwaka-SOKO workshop

Collections are all produced in Kenya to support the work of SOKO (a clothing production workshop in Kenya). SOKO is largely made up of women, and they receive a free lunch and on-site childcare. Also, they are donating $9 from every item sold from ASOS Africa to enable SOKO to build a new workshop.

 

ASOS/SOKO Africa  AW11

When I first heard about it, the all African inspired unique silhouette and very colorful prints came to my mind that are beautiful but yet difficult to make outfits, however, these are simple and modern wearable silhouette. Also the price is not as high as I thought which is about $50 to $160. In fact ASOS Africa showed us that it is possible to pay the factories well but also make the price of clothing affordable.     

    



ASOS/SOKO Africa   AW13