Monday 27 January 2020

COULD ARNOLD BE KENYA’S FUTURE YVES ST LAURENT?



By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 27 January 2020

Arnold Muriithi may soon be Kenya’s equivalent of an Yves St Laurent or a Calvin Klein.
That is what he heard from fans who saw his fashion collections in Maputo and Addis Ababa during their respective fashion weeks. It was also suggested by fashion scouts from the UK who were on the look out for fresh new fashion talents and invited him to attend fashion weeks in either London, Paris, Milan or New York.
‘But as I just came from Mozambique where I showed my Voyager collection this past December, I’m not prepared to present my newest designs just yet,’ says Muriithi who’s been moving in the fast lane ever since 2015 when he was picked by Equity Bank’s talent scouts who were also on the look out for Kenya’s next ‘big’ fashion talent.
‘I got selected after passing several tests for things like knowledge of construction and originality of my designs,’ says the young designer who was still a student at Kenyatta University when he won that jackpot.
‘Winning with Equity meant I went to show my first major collection at the Addis Fashion Week. As it turned out, they liked me so much I was invited back in 2016 and 2017, but I’ve moved on since then,’ says the designer who admits he has been making dresses since he was eight years old.
Having older sisters who left him a closet full of dolls, Muriithi got fascinated early on with the colourful clothes worn by his sister Claire’s Barbie dolls. He was also inspired by his mother who loved beautiful garments. She also read fashion magazines like Marie Claire, which he says is how his older sister got the name Claire.
Admitting he was never fond of toy cars or video games like most of his peers, Muriithi says he used to give away the cars to his friends since he preferred disassembling Barbie’s dresses and teaching himself how to reconstruct them using different materials.’
‘I actually made my first wedding dress for Barbie when I was 10,’ says the man who now creates couture  wedding gowns for Kenyan clients who have seen how beautifully he customizes his dress designs.
Working with his own tailors and ladies who help him hand-stitch finishing touches to his gowns, Muriithi could easily work full-time creating wedding gowns. (‘I love making my own lace which I often stitch onto my wedding dresses myself,’ he says, adding that trims can also include elegant snowy-white flowers that he carefully laser cuts, then hand-stitched strategically.)  
But then if Muriithi devotes all his time to making wedding gown, he might have a problem completing his next ‘Spring/Summer Collection’ for the next fashion week.
But the 27 year old who originally went to KU to study economics (according to his father’s plan) couldn’t give up his primary passion which was and still is fashion design. His family finally accepted his first love for fashion and for creating not only exquisite gowns, but also amazing pantsuits, skirts, shorts, tops and even matching leather handbags.
Working mainly with crepe chiffon that he gets from one shop in Westlands that imports materials from all over the world, Muriithi says he might work with Kenyan kikois one day. But for now he prefers elegant silks and chiffons that he describes as light, delicate, comfortable and wrinkle-free.
What actually kicked off his fashion career, he says, was his making the lead gown for Miss Kenya in 2014. For Lydia Manani, he used a Japanese chiffon that he got from the shop known as Memsaab. That gown went all the way to the Philippines where Lydia didn’t win the title of Miss World. But that dress is the one he submitted  to Equity Bank for their fashion search.
 Muriithi also had to be vetted to make it to the Maputo Fashion Week since only one East African designer was selected by fashionistas from France, Japan, UK and the Commonwealth Fashion Council. ‘Being selected to show my ‘Voyager’ collection in Mozambique was a big honour since there were designers there from all over the world,’ he says.
But Muriithi hasn’t allowed the adulation to go to his head. ‘I still want to get my creative identity right,’ says the man whose designs are earning him invitations to show everywhere from Cape Town and Jo’burg to Paris and London. But for now he can be found either in his workshop or at his new office at Rosslyn Riviera Mall.




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