In German we use to say "Tis early practice"! The saying applies beautifully to our story. For a while I had totally forgotten how much I loved to draw different outfits. From stunning ball gowns to manga characters in baggy pants, everything was there and as a teenager I loved to let my creativity run wild on paper. After a few years, I didn't just stick with drawings on paper, but also started to put my sewing skills to the test at school. I had a lot of fun sewing, from chocolate pillows to seed pillows and tote bags to t-shirts. We learned a few things in class. However, as is so often the case with teenagers, I've started to spend my time doing other things. Dancing and chilling with friends was a little more attractive to me at the time.

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However, I never lost my interest in fashion. The perfect style and finding myself in my own style was my world until I started to combine all skills a bit. At first I just copied my favorite clothes. In other words, a nice fabric was bought and the pattern copied from my favorite shirt and sewn again, or old jeans were painted with a wide variety of patterns. Proper works of art and I loved them! A few years later I also had my own design ideas, which I had only imagined in my head up to that point. However, it stayed with small simple pieces that I tailored from time to time.

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In 2017 I came into contact with my own wax print for the first time. Douce, you'll often come across her name here, gave me my first wax print. She was visiting the Netherlands and had brought me the fabric from DR Congo. This fabric was the source of my idea to combine cultures in our clothes. Ultimately, watching the series "Orange is the new black" inspired me to have my own designs made. You will now think "Orange is the new black - that's a prison series". Exactly, but you know the part where women get assigned jobs in prison? One of the jobs is making underwear. This part made me want to have clothes made under fair working conditions to give people a perspective and to help them earn a living.

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So for the first time I began to combine wax print fabrics with monochrome cotton material. After sewing leggings with a matching jacket, I developed a passion for designing and sewing.

 

So more tracks followed. Positive feedback and interest from family, friends and others in our network led to confirmation that we should start our own business. The motivation for doing this was twofold: firstly, to be able to create my own style and individual clothing and secondly, to fulfill the desire to create more awareness and acceptance for more culturally diverse fashion. This is my contribution to the struggle for a peaceful world filled with love and respect for ALL of us!

 

In the spirit of "Let your dreams be your wings", I started a distance learning course in fashion design in the summer of 2019 and graduated in early 2020. This was the basis to register and officially start our company called Ndáko.

 

True to the motto: The World is Home to Us All - Wear Culture!

 

In summer 2020 Steven joined Ndáko and we decided to build our business together. From this point on, we were able to quickly determine our next steps. After first meeting Mary, our seamstress in the Netherlands, we realized that we should have a click and work together. Within a month we were able to produce our first collection. A year after registering Ndáko with the Chamber of Commerce, we had our first photoshoots and prepared our next step: Going Live... And here we are!