#sunny dolat

[moonfirebrides]

“The Pearl is the Queen of gems and the gem of Queens.”

Photographed by @maganga.mwagogo Model @adhel_bol Creative Direction @sunnydolat Makeup @sinittaakello Hair @rickykish Dress @sevaria.ke Jewellery @we.are.nbo Producer @zi.ggie Production Assistant @janeywaithera Project Manager Kenya @eastafricaarts Styling Assistant @bryan.emry

[mademoiselleclipon]

Sunny Dolat

[visualstimuli]

Not African Enough (NAE), the Nest Collective’s first fashion book. Designer - Ami Doshi Shah

Photographer- Sunny Dolat, Model - Shanelle Nyasiaise

[worldart-brightonmuseums]

Brighton Museum & Art Gallery has just acquired the following outfit at part of it’s Heritage Lottery funded project Fashioning Africa.

These garments featured in the museum’s exhibition Fashion Cities Africa (April 2016-Jan 2017) as a look put together by Nairobi-based stylist Sunny Dolat.

(above image photographed by Tessa Hallmann)

This look draws from male silhouettes from the East African coastal regions, echoing the relaxed yet regal demeanor of the Swahili. The fitted sandstone jura shirt is reminiscent of a crisp kanzu, and offers a stark contrast to the kohl black scarf. The polished brass and the geode’s innate sparkle provide lustrous accents that enhance the distinguished appeal of this luxe ensemble.  

Jura shirt dress by Katungulu Mwendwa

Sandals from Afros by Emo Rugene

Black scarf by Memsaab Ltd

Caged Geode cuff by Ami Doshi Shah

Recycled sugar sack clutch bag with bone adornment by Adele Dejak

Antique Samburu pipe necklace by Katungulu Mwendwa

Tasseleted wrist piece by Ami Doshi Shah

Although Fashion Cities Africa is no longer on display at Brighton Museum, there is still an opportunity to see this outfit, together with some of Sunny’s other looks because the exhibition has gone on tour to The Tropenmuseum, in Amsterdam, The Netherlands from 6 October 2017.

See: https://tropenmuseum.nl/en/exhibition/fashioncitiesafrica

Sunny Dolat is a Kenyan fashion stylist, creative director and production designer.

His background in visual arts set the stage for a career in evolving concepts in beauty and design everywhere from fashion shoot mood boards to TV/film sets, and luxury hotels of international repute.Sunny has designed interventions such as Stingo & Chico Leco to provoke dialogue on the improvement of the infrastructure and operations of the regional industry. 

He was the creative director of the fashion film “To Catch A Dream”, starring renowned Kenyan model Ajuma Nasenyana, and firmly believes in the role of film as both an extension and disruption of the catwalk. His online fashion intervention, Chico Leco, has grown from high fashion editorial work into a holistic brand representing the bold, eclectic aesthetic of an eternal Africa, shifting the narrative and expectation of Kenyan fashion beyond ankara, kikoy and kanga, and making unapologetic statements about the dignity of black skin.

 His latest project, a fashion book titled - Not African Enough, puts together ideas and images from a selection of emerging Kenyan designers who are contributing to the shifting aesthetic of our country. In this interrogation of what exactly qualifies as ‘authentically African’, we challenge narrow definitions of African design and showcase original, unencumbered thinking and practice in this challenging sphere. Not African Enough is a voyage into Kenyan contemporary fashion as an exploration of wider issues regarding Africa’s place in global cultural debates and dialogues.

Sunny is 1/10 of The Nest Collective, a multidisciplinary arts (http://www.thisisthenest.com)

collaborative that serves as a functional playground for artists,

thinkers and curious minds. He is also Creative Strategy Manager

and board member at HEVA, an East African creative economy catalyst fund,

interested in sustainable financing, business support and market

growth for creative professionals.

Not African Enough presents a collection of words and images from a selection of emerging Kenyan designers who are contributing to shifting the aesthetic of our country by challenging the narrow expectations of what African design looks like.

'Not African enough' is a derogatory term routinely lobbed at artists, creators and thinkers who step outside the narrow confines of what the world—and Africans—think it means to look, talk like, think like and be an African. The book is an attempt to dismantle—perhaps even distance from—this heavy, super concept 'African'; this assembly of words, images, sounds, ideas, weaknesses, histories and failings associated with the entire continent.

Collated by Steve Kisko, Collections Assistant, World Art with kind assistance from Sunny Dolat in Kenya.

[ichyulu]

The Closure Series by Kenyan Jewellery Designer I AM I (Ami Doshi Shah)

Photography: Maganga Mwagogo

Styling: Sunny Dolat

Model: Nyarach Abouch Ayuel

[grabsomeironmeat]

- Sunny Dolat

[orangeculture]

Hello Nairobi. I can’t wait to see you all and to be speaking alongside some of the most inspiring people in fashion. #Fashionfocustalks #Repost @lagosfashionweekofficial ・・・ Fashion Focus Talks kicks off this weekend in Nairobi, Kenya. Tagged “Building From Within”, the Fashion Focus Talks are a series of curated free talks to inspire African creatives of the need to work together towards achieving a sustainable economy. It will run from the 26th of August to the 2nd of September 2018. — On Sunday the 26th of August, Nairobi will host speakers Omoyemi Akerele (Founder, Style House Files and Lagos Fashion Week), Diana Opoti (Founder, Designing Africa Collective), Adebayo Oke-Lawal (Creative Director, Orange Culture), Sunny Dolat (Co-founder, The Nest Collective), and James Kahuri (Strategy and Financial Advisor) at the first city stop at the Tribe Hotel, Limuru Road, The Village Market, Gigiri, Nairobi, Kenya. — Attendance IS FREE. Follow the link in bio to register to attend. https://www.instagram.com/p/Bms9NtCD60D/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=e36if2veaucv

[nataalmedia-blog]

Nataal explores Sudanese fashion at the Karmakol International Festival (@karmakolfest), courtesy of British Council (@britisharts) East Africa Arts programme (@eastafricaarts). Fashion Machine: Link in bio Creative team: Basma Khalifa (@basmakhalifa) Sunny Dolat (@sunnydolat) Maganga Mwagogo (@themaganga) Maimana Mohammed Abbas (@maimana_photography) Izy Yousif (@izyyousif) Words by Niamh Tuft

[afrostylemagazine]

K A R M A K O L Shot by Mangaga Mwagogo, styled by Sunny Dolat & Basma MUA by Amna Hamdto. Haute Baso Dress, Kantugulu Mwendwa Kimono...Gorg!! @amna.hamdto @hautebaso @kmwendwa @sunnydolat @basmakhalifa @themaganga @eastafricaarts @karmakolfest #fashion #fashionista #follow4follow #amazing #tbt #instamood #lol #art #love #selfie #blackandwhite #beautiful #instadaily #photo #summer #repost #photooftheday #followme #followforfollow #me #fun #asia #style #throwback #color #creative #europe #africa #like4like #thinkoutsidethebox WWW.AFROSTYLEMAG.COM

[naomijardon]

04_ConferenciaWDCD

El Martes 07 de Mayo, tuve la oportunidad de asistir al evento What Design Can Do 2019 Mexico City.

En la sesión se abordó el tema Diseñando Activismo. Los tres pensadores creativos que subieron al escenario fueron Nadya Tolokonnikova, Sunny Dolat y Ahmed Shihab Eldin (F.2 de derecha a izquierda respectivamente).

Cada uno habló desde su experiencia personal como activistas generando cambios sociales, políticos, econ��micos y ambientales. Desplegaron sus habilidades para combatir la desigualdad, la devastación ambiental, la injusticia y las violaciones de los derechos humanos.

Esto se relaciona con el diseño porque cada elección que hace un diseñador tiene un impacto en la sociedad. Es pertinente ya que podemos aprender a diseñar un mejor proceso de activación social y política. 

[potraits-x-awuor]

Maureen Theo

MUA: Cultured Ego

Stlist: Sunny Dolat

September 2016

[3dsrendercom]

Live talk on decolonising design as part of VDF's collaboration with What Design Can Do

Live talk on decolonising design as part of VDF's collaboration with What Design Can Do

[ad_1]

In the second part of Virtual Design Festival’s day of talks with What Design Can Do, designer Anoushka Khandwala and fashion curator Sunny Dolat discuss how colonialism has shaped design. Watch live from 2:00pm UK time.

Khandwala and Dolat will speak to Richard Van der Laken, co-founder of Amsterdam-based design platform What Design Can Do, about how designers can enable radical systemic…

[courtneytincher]

A new age for African fashion

At daybreak on the shores of the island nation of São Tomé e Príncipe, Sunny Dolat transformed into a high priest. Before an intimate audience at the 2019 N'golá Biennial of Arts and Culture, and joined by 46 models, the Kenyan creative director and fashion curator led "In Their Finest Robes, The Children Shall Return," a healing ritual and fashion intervention. from CNN.com - RSS Channel - World February 25, 2020 at 04:18PM At daybreak on the shores of the island nation of São Tomé e Príncipe, Sunny Dolat transformed into a high priest. Before an intimate audience at the 2019 N'golá Biennial of Arts and Culture, and joined by 46 models, the Kenyan creative director and fashion curator led "In Their Finest Robes, The Children Shall Return," a healing ritual and fashion intervention. via IFTTT

[dippedanddripped]

COMMENT

BY MAZZI ODU

JANUARY 27, 2017 14:18

LAGOS, Nigeria — “The local backlash was insane at first,” says Adebayo Oke-Lawal, the creative director behind Nigerian menswear label Orange Culture. “[But] I honestly think being received positively internationally helped change the view of the brand [back on the African continent].”

Three years ago, Oke-Lawal was showered with attention after he was named a semifinalist for the first ever LVMH Prize. The avant-garde designer says he chooses to create clothes for “the new age man, one who thinks differently, feels differently and allows himself to be vulnerable.” The result is a brand that he admits was initially not well received, as he chose to challenge conventional aesthetics and notions of masculinity.

But thanks to the spotlight of LVMH and the global network of influential industry leaders like Omoyemi Akerele, he can now afford to be ironic. So much so that he called the latest Orange Culture collection ‘The School of Rejects’ when he showed at Lagos Fashion and Design Week in October. Next season, Oke-Lawal says, there will be a show during London Fashion Week Men’s in June.

African menswear designers like Oke-Lawal are increasingly visible on the global fashion calendar and in demand from international retailers. Take South African designer Laduma Ngxokolo, whose brand MaXhosa by Laduma was exhibited for a third time at this month’s Pitti Immagine Uomo in Florence, or the Côte d’Ivoire-raised Alexis Temomanin, whose label Dent De Man is sold as far afield as Barneys New York, American Rag in Tokyo and Joyce in Hong Kong. For its part, Orange Culture is available in Church Boutique in Los Angeles and Utter Couture in London.

Beyond the foreign gaze

African menswear can no longer be considered an exotic afterthought or as somewhat separate from the international scene. How African designers are understood beyond the continent is often synonymous with the vivid visual motifs and hyper-stylization of a few African menswear references. The style movement behind the Congo’s flamboyant Les Sapeurs, working class men who spend the majority of their salaries on clothing, coupled with the arresting portraiture of Malian photographers like Seydou Keita and Malick Sidibé have cemented this idea still further in the foreign gaze.

However, Africa’s diverse aesthetics as well as their sources and influences are far more nuanced. The way in which African men navigate masculinity and express it through clothes is surprisingly fluid, adding to its appeal in a global fashion industry that continues to reflect a post-gender agenda. Pastel suiting, bold use of print and a vivid palette for knitwear have all become hallmarks of Laurence Chauvin Buthaud’s menswear brand Laurence Airline.

The way in which African men navigate masculinity and express it through clothes is surprisingly fluid.

Produced in her native Côte d’Ivoire, Buthaud is quick to highlight the brand’s European influences, given the emphasis she places on having footholds in both Paris and Abidjan. Culture clash is explored further by Dent De Man, who since an explosive 2015 showing at Pitti Immagine Uomo, has continued to hone its offering of suiting in heritage Indonesian wax prints informed by founder Alexis Temomanin’s Ivorian ancestry and his East London location.

A similar cross-pollination in ideation and execution is seen in Okun, a haute beachwear brand that is giving market leader Vilebrequin a valiant run for its money – at least in the design stakes. Nigerian-born, British-based creative director Bola Marquis was keen  from the outset to create an international luxury beachwear brand with an overt African aesthetic. The fact that his stockists now range from Brown’s in London to United Arrows in Tokyo supports his cause.

Similarly, Chi Atanga, a Cameroonian-British entrepreneur behind loungewear brand Walls of Benin, is hoping to conquer a niche menswear category through a nod to African design. Meanwhile, creative polymaths like the Kenya-based stylist Sunny Dolat offer a persuasive and powerful lens onto menswear from an East African perspective.

Pivot from South to West Africa

For decades the dominant force in Sub-Saharan Africa was the South African fashion industry. Boasting the most mature retail market, it also hosted a vibrant range of menswear and mixed gender players during the country’s fashion weeks. David Tlale, MaXhosa by Laduma Ngxokolo and Stiaan Louw are just three who have made an impact beyond their national borders. But whilst fashion weeks in Johannesburg and Cape Town have long been the location to scout for Africa’s brightest and best menswear designers, recent years have seen something of a pivot toward West Africa – especially in terms of global influence.

MaXhosa by Laduma Spring/Summer 2017 | Source: Courtesy

From 2014 until 2016, when the commodities market brought oil prices tumbling, Nigeria was the largest economy in Africa. As well as being a cultural hegemon, it is home to some of the wealthiest billionaires on the continent. Speaking to menswear designers based in Lagos, the country’s commercial capital, one is struck by their collective mission to serve such a vast city with a melting pot of influences and distinct aesthetics, rooted in a deep tradition of tailoring and codified dress for different occasions.

Sleek and aspirational affluence is reflected in the work of tailor Mai Atafo, the de facto wedding attire choice for wealthy city dwellers and a red carpet perennial for male celebrities. Another Nigerian who chooses to posit his menswear practice as part of a larger personal design portfolio is Kelechi Odu. Embracing architecture, furniture design and fine art, his conceptual approach “seeks to interrogate and contribute to the discourse of what a man is,” he says. His collections are often informed by geopolitics, popular cultural icons and heritage.

The commercial success of menswear designers on the African continent is especially commendable given the production challenges they face. Oke-Lawal cities several infrastructure issues and Odu notes that both his mainline collection and footwear line have been hampered by his decision to produce exclusively in Nigeria. If designers across the continent are to truly take advantage of the global interest and demand for their products, a tripartite approach is needed, involving industry bodies, diversified capital inflows and critically, government buy-in, still essential in emerging markets around Africa.

The leadership of local industry

To this end, the pioneering efforts of Omoyemi Akerele, founder of Lagos Fashion and Design Week is significant. Over the past seven years, Akerele has lobbied for the local and wider African fashion industries both at home and abroad. She has taken advantage of her global network and convening power to seek solutions to the particular challenges faced by African brands and provided a considerable platform for menswear designers from the continent.

“Menswear collections keep getting stronger season in, season out. And with the extension of the LFDW platform beyond Nigerian designers to a pan-African platform, there's an increasing need to create programmes solely dedicated to promoting menswear via the platform,” she says, pointing to the need to better “connect the dots”, ensuring designers, retailers, financiers and representatives of legislation bodies work in concert to create an ecosystem that is conducive to supporting the industry long term.

The menswear renaissance in Africa would be nothing without its local retail champions. Three Nigerian retailers at the vanguard are Temple Muse, Alara and Stranger. As the oldest of the three, Temple Muse, founded by former Selfridgesbuyer Avi Wadhwani and his brother Kabir Wadhwani, has enjoyed many retailing firsts: acting as a launch pad for African-grown talent such as Tzar Studio and Kelechi Odu and more recently the highly-anticipated collaboration between Ugo Mozie and Bailey Hats. They were also first to showcase Balmain and Lanvin menswear.

Our early days were spent educating customers about Japanese fashion brands, minimalist designers.

After Alara opened its doors, founder Reni Folawiyo stocked Laurence Airline and Orange Culture alongside Dries Van Noten and Margiela in a bid to put African menswear designers on par with their international counterparts. Speaking to Yegwa Ukpo, of the boutique Stranger, illustrates the pivotal role that retailers have in growing the market: “Our early days were spent educating customers about Japanese fashion brands, minimalist designers like Peir Wu and encouraging people to feel comfortable standing out.”

Alongside Wu, Stranger stocks Post Imperial, Adeju Thompson and U.Mi-1, crafting a distinctly edgy experience for the fashion enthusiast. But of growing commercial and creative influence are e-commerce platforms that are focused on African designers such as StyledByAfrica.com, Moon-look.com and Osengwa.com, some of which offer curated menswear collections that sit in the affordable luxury and high-end-of-the-high street price point.

Collectively, what these and other cosmopolitan menswear players highlight is that Africa has pluralistic voices and is home to varied design languages that go beyond tribal or other aesthetic clichés. Let there be no mistake: African menswear is no longer the remote, misunderstood exotic relative; but rather an integrated part of the global fashion family.

[fashion-africa-brighton]

Fashion Cities Africa & Stories of Our Lives screening

It's the beginning of August and we're in Brighton, which can mean only one thing - Pride is sparkling just on the horizon. We're inviting people to kick-start their Pride weekend celebrations at Brighton Museum & Art Gallery with a late night private view of Fashion Cities Africa, before a private screening of Stories of Our Lives, a film characterising the queer experience in Kenya and produced by Kenyan creative powerhouse, the Nest Collective.

Today we caught up with Kelly Boddington, Buying Assistant for the Royal Pavilion & Museums and one of the light bulb brains behind tomorrow's event.

Tomorrow night’s event is fairly unique in comparison to the sorts of events that we’ve organised in conjunction with Pride before. Have you found it difficult to organise? What are some of the challenges you’ve had to face? Of course there have been hurdles, as there always are. It’s been challenging and at the moment, our ticket sales aren’t looking as great as we hoped they would. This could be for a variety of reasons but I think it’s because we’ve organised this event for Pride weekend. It’s all well and good to latch on to the excitement of Pride but there are so many other things going on around the city at this time of year that we’re competing with, and people don’t necessarily want to go to museums to celebrate Pride. I think that in the future, we should perhaps think about organising such events during History Month. I think that to celebrate Pride next year, what we should have instead is a Royal Pavilion & Museums float – especially with the big LGBTQ exhibition we’re now in the process of planning. I really hope that if this event does well in the end, that maybe other people will be inspired by our success and think about including LGBTQ stands in exhibitions in the future - because they’ll see that that that sort of material is of interest to people.

What are you hoping that attendees will take away from the event tomorrow night? Are there any particular messages that you’d like to convey? I’d like people to feel that the Royal Pavilion & Museums is an organisation that offers LGBTQ cultural perspectives. In line with the aims of Fashion Cities Africa, we’re also keen to make it clear that African cultural identities aren’t homogenous – there’s no such thing as an African LGBTQ identity, the same as there’s no such thing as “African fashion”. We’d like to expand people’s ideas a little bit and help to make people aware of what LGBTQ life is like in many African countries; in Kenya, for example, there’s an extremely hostile climate and the media provide a really narrow, sensationalist portrayal of homosexual people. On the whole, it feels like many African countries have inherited a really unpleasant, homophobic culture which probably dates back from colonial times, when the west was in charge. The Nest Collective have all different kinds of creative outputs; fashion, film, literature, etc. A while ago they decided to collate oral histories from people throughout Kenya about their various LGBTQ experiences, and create a book. From our perspective, it’s hard to appreciate how brave that was of them, living where they do. Even despite all of the negative feedback that they’ve received from the Kenyan authorities and society in general, they’ve continued to work hard and not give up on their pursuits. It’s important for us to communicate that the Nest Collective don’t see themselves as poor, beaten-down gay people, either; they’re all smart, sophisticated people with brilliant ideas and intelligent perspectives that they’re really keen to share.

Have you seen the film yet? If so, what did you think of it? I’ve read a lot about the film and seen a handful of excerpts but haven’t actually watched it the whole way through yet, so tomorrow will be my first time watching it. I’m looking forward to seeing the film for the first time alongside everybody else.

[ichyulu]

The Closure Series by Kenyan Jewellery Designer I AM I (Ami Doshi Shah)

Photography: Maganga Mwagogo

Styling: Sunny Dolat

Model: Nyarach Abouch Ayuel