SOKO's website and film

It’s been months in the making but we finally launch our new website and our short film.

Thanks to the hard work of Scott Hamilton we have the website. With our new website we will now move our blog so please keep following us here.

Thanks to Max Fielden and Lucy Baker who spent two weeks with us at SOKO learning the ins and outs of what we do we have the SOKO film. You can watch it on the homepage of our website or on our youtube channel.

Please let us know what you think!

Student sponsorship

SOKO donates money every month towards student sponsorship at the Ukunda Youth Polytechnic (where SOKO is based). The Polytechnic have a number of students that are orphans and do not receive any financial support from their families, these are the students that SOKO is currently supporting. Here is a story of one of the students....

Christine has been studying Electronics at the Polytechnic for the past two years. Tragically last year her father died but her mother found a way to pay for her course fees alone, no longer having the support of her husband.

A few months ago Christine's mother suddenly died, this left Christine having to fend for herself.

Christine was determined to continue her studies at the Polytechnic, but now had no way of funding herself. Her extended family refused to help her so she ran up a debt of £100. Unfortunately, because of this debt the Polytechnic was unable to enter Christine for her exams.

A week ago Thomas, the manager of the Polytechnic, came to SOKO to ask for its support with Christine. SOKO has now agreed to cover the cost of Christine's exam fees and clear her debt enabling Christine to gain her qualification and increase her chances of getting a job once she finishes her studies.

SOKO's new machines have arrived!

At SOKO we have been waiting for a delivery of industrial sewing machines for the last 5 months; finally, last night the delivery arrived!

They were shipped all the way from England and boxed up incredibly securely. In fact they were almost too secure, which led to the transformation of Phillip from Master Tailor to Super-handy-man, so he took his hammer and screw driver and tackled the nails and huge staples. After some minutes struggling, the contents of all four cartons were revealed. Our new machinery for the workshop had arrived, including 3 industrial straight stitch machines, 1 button hole machine, 3 straight stitch machines, 1 cutting machine and an industrial iron, vacuum, steam unit.

All of us at SOKO are really excited about these new arrivals as they will speed up production and improve quality - definitely a milestone for all of us here!

Welcome Nicola

For the past week SOKO's tailors have been busy making the Winter 2010 ASOS Africa tailored jacket in preparation for the hand beaded lapels. The beading will be carefully hand sewn onto the lapels of 100 jackets in the next few days... pictures soon to come.

ALSO... We are lucky enough to have a new temporary addition to the SOKO team in the form of Nicola Thornley. Since graduating from university Nicola has worked with a number of high end fashion labels to include Nicole Farhi, Alexander McQueen and most recently Burberry; at Burberry Nicola was Product Development Coordinator for the Burberry Brit brand.

Having spent time working for companies involved in high profit and fast turnover Nicola has decided to take some time out from her day job. She has travelled to Africa to get an insiders look into the other side of the industry and spend some time with us here at SOKO.

We are very excited to have her with us - she already has a long list of projects to work on so watch this space...

Exhibition in aid of SOKO

SOKO would like to say a huge thank you to Paul and Chantal Cox (Jo's parents) for organising 'Exposition Chapelle de Saint George'.

Paul and Chantal opened their home in France for a week to showcase the work of five English artists.

The artists included Sally Elizabeth - jewellery designer, Hilary Garner - artist, David Maiden - artist, Nik Meergans - sculptor, Jeanette Todd - ceramicist. We would also like to thank all artists for generously contributed a percentage of sales towards the work of SOKO.

The exhibition was an amazing success.... see pictures below.

Busy Beaders

SOKO has now gathered a large group of beaders to work on the beading for the ASOS Africa Autumn/Winter 2010 collection. Our group of beaders are from the Maasai tribe (of Kenya and Tanzania) and, as one of the beaders told us, they are "born beading". Beading is traditionally done by women but throughout the years men have learnt the skill; we certainly have a large number of male beaders at SOKO.

The beads of the Maasai tribe are usually brightly coloured and elaborate pieces are produced. Beads are worn by Maasai to show status within a tribe or during a celebration, for example when the Maasai warriors (Moran) have been out in the bush for their coming of age they return to a huge celebration and are adorned with beautiful beaded pieces that the women had been making whilst waiting for their return.

The beaded pieces for the ASOS Africa collection have been specifically designed for the Autumn/Winter collection. Each piece takes one beader approximately 4 days and the aim is to make every piece identical.

Hopefully you can now see just how special these new beaded pieces for the ASOS Africa Autumn/Winter collection are!

ASOS Africa Autumn 2010

Check out the great new styles produced by SOKO for the ASOS Africa Autumn 2010 collection online.... visit www.tinyurl.com/asosafricaaw10

African prints designed by asos

After the succesful production of the first half of the ASOS Africa Autumn/Winter collection SOKO's tailors are busy working away on the second half.

Phillip (our Master Tailor) cutting the fabric


The second part of the collection includes the colourful One Shoulder Dress. This dress is particularly special as the fabric on the top part of the dress was designed by the ASOS team and the fabric was printed in Tanzania. After the hundreds of metres of fabric were printed it was shipped to Kenya ready for production; making this dress a truly unique African creation!

SOKO in the Metro....

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ASOS: Africa's great material gains

ASOS Africa: The online store’s fairtrade African range will liven up your autumn wardrobe.

ASOS: Blacket coat, £75

Brighten autumn evenings with a blast of colour by ASOS Africa.

This is the collection’s second outing on the site since its launch in February 2010, where it forms part of ASOS’s Green Room, which offers brands that promote people and planet.

ASOS: Biker jacket, £75

ASOS: Two-in-one skater dress, £50

Traditional African fabrics and specially designed Kitenge cloths, a heavier fabric used in winters in Africa, are used to create tulip skirts, wrap dresses, maxi and cheeky skater skirts.

It’s fast becoming one of the prettiest fairtrade ranges around – ASOS Africa

is made with small, impoverished communities in Africa, allowing them to establish long-lasting businesses using local craftsmanship.

It’s a means of income for communities and celebrates traditional skills.

http://www.metro.co.uk/lifestyle/839681-asos-africas-great-material-gains

ASOS Africa Autumn/Winter 2010

We've been working away for the last few months on the ASOS Africa A/W10 collection. The first collection is leaving our workshop on Monday destined for the ASOS warehouse.

We still have 152 garments to complete, quality check and pack by Monday but there is a great vibe with everyone working their socks off to get the shipment out on time.

We are producing 100 dungarees for ASOS. The print was designed by the ASOS Africa team and the fabric and printing was from Tanzania. This style has caused us a lot of stress with the fabric arriving last week and the buckles arriving yesterday. We are living and breathing dungarees! Here is Dominic cutting away....

Keep your eyes peeled as the collection will go live on www.asos.com in the next few weeks.

We're in.....

Our extension is finally finished and we've moved in!

The first ASOS Africa Autumn/Winter 2010 delivery of 1000 units is due to leave the workshop next week so we haven't had much time to sit back and enjoy it but as you'll see below we've managed to fill every inch of the new space already.



As I write we are planting a little garden at the front of the workshop. We'll show the finished product next week.



Our team of ladies ironing and packing the ASOS range.



Ezekiel, one of our beaders working on a beaded piece for the October ASOS delivery and Naomi, one of our quality control team.

Training at SOKO

This week three of SOKO's youngest, newest tailors return from a month of tailoring training. This fantastic opportunity is being run in partnership with Wildlife Works www.wildlifeworks.com, at Rukinga Wildlife Reserve, approximately 3 hours drive from SOKO’s workshop.

When SOKO’s tailors arrive with us they receive the appropriate training from our Master Tailor, Phillip, and other senior tailors. The tailors are trained in sewing specific garments using foot pedal machines. The need for further training has arisen due to SOKO, purchasing new industrial machines, hence providing the opportunity and the need for tailors to increase their skills set.

At Wildlife Works the tailors learn the whole process of CMT (cut, make and trim) manufacturing from a different company’s perspective. They learn how to: cut patterns, use industrial sewing machines, quality check garments and finish the whole product off. The most important skill that they learn during their month at Wildlife Works is how to use an industrial sewing machine.

Whilst undertaking this training the tailors are provided with a wage, food allowance and accommodation by SOKO; in addition to this Wildlife Works kindly gives the tailors lunch every day. This training is an amazing opportunity for our tailors as training in Kenya can be very expensive.

SOKO will continue this partnership with Wildlife Works until all of SOKO’s tailors have been through the training. The next three tailors leave us at the end of the month.

A huge thank you to Wildlife Works for the great training they are providing SOKO’s tailors.

Kenya referendum

As you may have seen in the news over the last few days, yesterday the 4th August 2010 marked the day when all Kenyan citizens voted Yes or No to a new constitution. This has been a big deal here as it is the first constitution since Independence and marks Kenya's future. The best summary on the details of the constitution can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/cnnreferendum

So, what does it mean for us?
We closed the SOKO workshop yesterday and today. Yesterday, 4th August was marked a National Holiday and today we continue to be closed. I am not one for scaremongering, actually I can be quite the opposite, but I was advised to close. The last time the country had a national vote in December 2007 there was horrendous violence and over 1000 people died. We all believe that this time there will be peace. Everyone I have spoken to says 'We have all learnt our lesson', the Government officials are promoting peace and the police are out in force but the complexity of tribal divisions and underlying tensions are still here.

The news is reporting that the Yes vote looks to be in lead by over 60% - we will not know the results until later today - following the answer we pray for peace.

All going well we open tomorrow and wow do we have a lot to do.....

SOKO grows....

For the last six months we've been in desperate need of more workshop space and though our long term vision is to build our own factory this is currently beyond our means. We therefore decided to build an extension onto our current workshop.

The building work started a month ago and we are due to move in by the end of next week. This is really excited for us as the new extension will double the amount of space we have and is bright and airy.

We'll send pictures of the finished workshop when we've moved in.

Lalesso SS11 Collection.

SOKO is pleased to once again be working with Lalesso on the SS11 collection. SOKO's tailors have been busy making the press samples for this gorgeous collection.

Olivia and Alice, the directors of Lalesso, give us a sneak preview of the collection:

The Lalesso SS11 collection sees the use of four exciting new vibrant khanga prints; these have been printed on an extremely light weight, soft and deliciously drapable viscose that will give the entire collection the added ethereal and floaty essence that summer demands. Lalesso has created a range of styles that will hopefully appeal to a wider target market, from young slightly sporty beach wear to some longer lengthened elegant evening wear. Complementing that feel of the fabrics, the collection follows Lalesso's design ideals by loosely and effortlessly shadowing the female silhouette, creating comfortable, flattering and chic summer staples. New in the SS11 collection is the incorporation of brass work by the Bombolulu workshop, a creative hub that provides skills, training and jobs for handicapped individuals in Mombasa. The brass work will be combined with African bead work in certain designs to form delicate embellishment detailing.

The new spring summer collection can't come soon enough for us here at SOKO, so that we can get our hands on these beautiful designs.

Welcome to the new SOKO blog!

SOKO was founded in 2009 by Joanna Maiden with a view to produce clothing using ethical standards in Kenya to the Western fashion market. SOKO does this whilst providing training and fair employment to local people in an area that has 50% unemployment. SOKO's factory is based in the Ukunda Youth Polytechnic, on the South Coast of Mombasa. One of the major prorities of SOKO is to support the Polytechnic through sponsoring orphaned students and offering training and employment to tailoring graduates of the institution.

To date SOKO has completed production for ASOS Africa SS10 http://www.asos.com/ , Lalesso SS10 http://www.lalesso.com/ and Lu Flux accessories SS10 http://www.luflux.com/ . SOKO is currently in the middle of production for ASOS Africa AW10 and Lalesso SS11.

Watch this blog for exciting updates from SOKO!

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