Uganda Fashion — Sustainable fashion from Africa

OUR STORY

Amin Dada. This is the first association most westerners make when thinking of Uganda. After decades of chaos the country has been stable for about 10 years now and much has changed since then. Young attractive women crowd the streets of Kampala and are all keen on looking attractive while flirting with the tight boundary of cultural appropriateness. The temperature scours towards the 30C`s while each one of them needs to clear their tasks of the day amidst a buzzing city centre. One of them is called Garimoi (lion) Alur Harriet. Being a student of Ethics & Development studies, she was more concerned with her own clothing style then a theoretical career and spend much time advising her fellow students how to turn dirt cheap second hand clothing through creative adjustments into impressing combinations. Immediately a career had started and Harriet would focus her next years on the development of sustainable fashion from Africa.

SUSTAINABLE FASHION

Elijah Mcquinn stands for Sustainable fashion from Africa. Elijah Mcquinn is an ethical brand, concerned with the sustainability of its complete supply chain. By adhering to ethical and sustainable fashion, Elijah Mcquinn has become the boldest fashion brand from Uganda. The brand recognizes its sustainability in the following four aspects: Social inclusion, environmental waste reduction, outreach training and vocational apprenticeships. Fashion sustainability in Africa is now key to business.

SOCIAL INCLUSION

Our female tailors originate from disadvantaged families. They used to make a living by making small repairs in an improvised shop deep in the city center. After intense training and coaching, these ladies have become an indispensable part of our supply chain. Nowadays their income has increased almost 3 fold which enables them to assure their kids attend school and have a better future.

Ugandan quality leather to fabricate quality leather bags in Uganda

ENVIRONMENTAL WASTE REDUCTION

Every day tons of second hand clothing are dumped onto the African continent. They end up in the most rural places where villagers replace their cultural wear with cheap foreign pieces. The negative impact of this practice on the local economy is highly underestimated. For every piece of item dumped, a local tailor has one day less income. As Elijah Mcquinn we decided to make a statement against this unsustainable practice by recycling the attributes of this original clothing. We select buttons, laces, linings and cutouts and reintegrate them into new designs. We are proud to be one of the first fashion brands in Uganda to contribute to a sustainable circular economy through up-scaling of materials. As such environmental waste reduction is a major component within achieving sustainable fashion in Africa.

OUTREACH TRAININGS

Next to our higher end fashion niche, the company provides entrepreneurial trainings to disadvantaged youth in Northern Uganda. Since the return of peace, majority of the school going youth enjoy secondary education resulting in thousands graduating every year in search of jobs. There is an imminent need to transfer practical skills to this lost generation. Elijah Mcquinn cooperates with Paicho Secondary school and Paboo Secondary School in Gulu district, Northern Uganda by empowering pupils with artisan skills as soap making and tailoring.

APPRENTICESHIP PROGRAMME

Uganda has a youth unemployment rate of 64-70%. Technical jobs appear less attractive because of a perceived outlook of unreliable compensation in a largely informal economic sector.
As Elijah Mcquinn we wish to see that potential candidate tailors can acquire the most relevant quality and practical skills and are exposed to the latest essentials of an ever changing fashion sector.
That is why we offer a six week training programme to prepare our apprentices with all the required skills to jump-start a career as a fashion sensitive tailor.

Who we are