FASHION DESIGNER FEATURE: MAYAMIKO

When judges recently came together to decide on which 10 brands to recognize for being global leaders on sustainability, they picked Malawi’s Mayamiko as an Award Winner for the CO10 Leadership Awards.

Mayamiko, with locations in London and Lilongwe, is Malawi’s own organic garment maker, globally known for using sustainable methods to create designer luxury ready to wear and bespoke pieces.

Tell me it’s real, I thought to myself, thinking in that moment that I had probably got it all wrong.

I was recently going through Twitter when I found myself reading a Monique Jessen tweet(@moniquejessen) showing a photograph of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, that was taken during her recent trip to Cape Town.
The piece shown was a Dalitso wrap dress, a gorgeous natural and stylish piece featuring short-capped sleeves that I mistook for a dress tailor-fresh off the production line of a certain upmarket fashion house in Milan or Paris. Sold out shortly after the publicity garnered by Meghan, the internet identified it as a dress by Mayamiko, a sustainable and ethical label from Malawi.

"The piece shown was a Dalitso wrap dress, a gorgeous natural and stylish piece featuring short-capped sleeves that I mistook for a dress tailor-fresh off the production line of an upmarket fashion house in Milan or Paris."

My surprise was not because I underestimated the capacity of Malawians to make great designer pieces fit for a Duke or Duchess. It came from amazement and excitement that something made locally had managed to surge to the front page fashion press pages. I thought it was a rare moment, especially because it doesn’t happen often that we see Malawian garments garnering so many rave reviews. And so I decided to find out more about Mayamiko Fashions.

EXCLUSIVE FABRICS
Our recent look into Mayamiko’s fabric selection processes has shown that Mayamiko’s fabrics are hand picked from the local fabrics market in Malawi, an endevour achieved by partnering with a local cooperative of women traders to source the most exclusive prints, a team with skills and expertise so specific and rare that they can only manage to produce a very limited number of pieces.

ZERO WASTE FASHION
Inorder to maintain the existing strict code of sustainability that the Fashion maker adopted at it’s inception in 2008, they have to do things in a certain way. As part of this drive, each and every piece of garment that comes out of the designer’s Lilongwe Workshop is based on specific demand to avoid fabric waste through over-production. Mayamiko’s collections are all-season free, designed in a way that you are able to enjoy the pieces all year round, “ whether on their own in summer, or beautifully layered and styled in winter,” based on their website, mayamiko.com.

PRINTS, FASHION, SUSTAINABLE AFRICAN FLAVOUR. THAT IS WHAT BETTER SUMMARIZES WHAT MAYAMIKO IS ALL ABOUT.

Another awesome aspect of Mayamiko’s fabrics is that they are often artisanal and hand made, which means a highly possible infusion of artistic fabric and colour imperfections that add to the uniqueness of the pieces - rather than representing a defect or fault.

MILESTONES
When judges recently came together to decide on which 10 brands to recognize for being global leaders in sustainability, one of the names picked as an Award Winner for the CO10 Leadership Awards was Mayamiko, Malawi’s own organic garment maker globally known for using sustainable methods to create designer luxury ready to wear and bespoke pieces. “Each and every piece of garment that comes out of the designer’s Lilongwe Workshop is based on specific demand to avoid fabric waste through over-production.”

A DEDICATION TO THE FAMILY
Mayamiko’s piece names are almost all Malawian Chichewa names. In case you may want know, it is a shout out to the members of the Mayamiko family whose great work day in and day out has led to the emergence of this remarkable company and these include trainees, tailors and market traders in addition to many other individuals.

 MANUFACTURING
 Mayamiko’s garments are made in a solar powered workshop just outside Lilongwe. Each and every garment is made by highly skilled tailors, most of whom came with no prior skills in tailoring and were trained at the Mayamiko Workshop. Inorder to produce quality garments of world-class standards suitable for kings and queens, the tailors undergo years of dedicated and meticulous training.

GOTS CERTIFIED COTTON

Mayamiko uses GOTS Certified cotton whereever they can. But due to the fact that the organic certification is not available in the Malawian communities where they work, Mayamiko partnered with Cotonea. Cotonea works with cotton farmers in Gulu, Northern Uganda to produce lovely and ethical organic cotton which is then transformed into the fabric used by Mayamiko. These cotton growers are fairly paid to afford to pay for health care and education for their children.

WHERE TO BUY
In case you are wondering as to whether Mayamiko only sales at high street fashion boutiques in Europe and elsewhere, the answer is no. Mayamiko garments are readily available in Malawi to all those who want to get dressed by one of Malawi’s finest fashion houses. Mayamiko styles can be purchased at their workshop located in area 47/3.

In the next few weeks as we appraoch the festive season, they will be opening pop up shops as follows:
African Fashion and Arts Festival Guest Designer - 16th November 2019
Mayamiko Pop Up Shop at Lark Area 43 Lilongwe - 23rd November 2019
Lark Christmas Bazaar at Lark - 06th December 2019
Chocolate Factory in Zomba - 14th December 2019

You are welcome to get into contact with Mayamiko:
Contact: Hlupikile Chirwa
Cell: 0999 72 63 46
 Email: mayamikolab@gmail.com

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