#OwnYourCulture Style + Christmas Giveaway

Christmas comes early for all you fashion lovers! Get access to your favorite fashion and lifestyle magazines like Vogue, Cosmopolitan all for FREE!! Head on to Magazinos.com sign up and use the promo code vavavum to gain access!


Here's another batch of the visuals we did for Refashionafrica.com, taken at my fav art space, Kuona Trust. Join the movement, #OwnYourCulture with style!

Photo: El Photographia

Styling: Perpetua O.

Bag: Gonzala Leathers

Happy Holidays!

Miss Vavavum

Xx

#OwnYourCulture X Refashion Africa

Over the past few weeks, I have been collaborating with an amazing team to create some visuals for #OwnYourCulture X RefashionAfrica collab. Taking #OwnYourCulture to the global stage.

Here's some of the cool stuff we made

Photo: El Photographia  

Neck Piece: Zanta Beads

Stylist: Perpetua Adoyo

Bag:Gonzala Leathers

Peep www.refashionafrica.com to see more of the work

Join the movement on Instagram #OwnYourCulture

Miss Vavavum

Xx

#OwnYourCulture- Decolonizing Fashion one "Traditional' Necklace at a Time.

GET WITH IT!

#OwnYourCulture Movement

Neck piece- Zanta Beads

Photo:Jeri Muchura Photography

Makeup:Njoki Makeup

Miss Vavavum

Xx

#OwnYourCulture and Fun!

Weekends are so amazing in Nairobi, with our beautiful restaurants, culture-filled music festivals, scenic areas in Nairobi- there's always a lot to do and see! It's for these reasons that one feels the urge to dress up on a weekend out about town. And to that, adding fabulous 'traditional' jewelry.

Here I styled, Samburu and Maasai necklaces on a crop top worn with a striped flute skirt and finished the look with black sandal heels.

Cultural ornaments are fun and colorful!! Layering them up just adds a whole new dimension to one's outfit, and It's safe to say, they look great with just about anything! See here OwnYourCulture Instagram

Are you feeling the #OWNYOURCULTURE vibe? Show us some love on @OwnYourCulture Instagram

Photography: Jeri Muchura

Makeup:Njoki Makeup

Shop similar pieces on Uberduka for #OwnYourCulture

Join the movement, let's wear our culture with style and pride!

Miss Vavavum

Xx

How to Wear Prints and #OwnYourCulture

I have been asked many times how to mix prints with colorful 'traditional' ornaments. Oftentimes some people shy away from "too colorful" jewelry especially of the "traditional" kind. The trick to making these traditional pieces work with your printed dress or top, style your printed outfit with plain colored jewelry in bright colors.

 These pieces can turn even the drab-est of outfits into a stylish outfits. "Tradtioinal" jewelry is artistically crafted and a proper statement piece!

 To see more inspirational ways to wear "traditional" East African jewelry, head on to OwnYourCulture Instagram to see how trendsetters all over the world wear their culture with style and pride. Join the movement, take a pic and tag @OwnYourCulture

 Shop similar pieces on #OwnYourCulture on Uberduka or Kuona Trust Centre Nairobi

Join the movement! Let's wear our culture with style and pride!

Photography:Jeri Muchura Photography

Makeup:Njoki Makeup

Miss Vavavum

Xx

#OwnYourCulture

Through the one year plus of researching and growing the #OwnYourCulture movement, I have been blessed enough to discover the diverse beauty of Kenyan culture and East African 'traditional' culture as a whole. This has been through asking older members of society, our beloved museums, historic writings and photographs and of course trolling the internet.Several communities in Kenya used the similar jewelry designs to adorn themselves, the difference would come in whether they were made of copper or beads. At this point it's absolutely safe to say that our great ancestors were pure creative geniuses!

Fun fact: did you know our ancestors wore these glamour pieces throughout their days and lives, like how glam was your home village? Each piece symbolized different situations in their daily life, so there were almost 100 pieces signifying different things. If you're anything like me, village life mustn't have been that bad, I mean dance festival days, fashion-like festivals(showcasing who had the most creative hair style or jewelry style)- I can live with that!

On research, colonization forced many Kenyan communities to disown and abandon, various indigenous jewelry and art. With #OwnYourCulture Campaign I seek to restore inherently 'traditional' pieces as fashion statements. And even beyond, because we as Kenyans really need to appreciate and nurture what is ours, from arts, music as well as these ornaments. For example this beaded choker, the intricate design and detail makes It perfect for the simplest LBDs! 

This piece is perfect for the office given it's colorful yet minimalist piece for Its size.

Neck Piece available at Kuona Trust Art Shop Nairobi

or UBERDUKA.COM

Visit @OwnYourCulture Instagram to see how trendsetters from East and South Africa style 'traditional' neck pieces. Join the movement, let's wear our culture with style and pride!

Photography:Jeri Muchura Photography

Makeup:Njoki Makeup

Miss Vavavum

Xx

The 'Hamasisha' Shirt Dress

Shirt dresses are the hot wardrobe staple this season, Ideally worn by itself, the current Nairobi weather is not as conducive. However wearing it over a pair of ragged denims always does the style trick :)

My current go-to accessories are the various traditional pieces from around East Africa. They are so gorgeous and have some yummy colors!

Life is all about the right shoes people, the right shoes!

A closer look at the pink cut-out pumps

Head on over to Instagram and check out fab ways to style traditional East African jewelry, let's wear our culture proudly! More here > #OwnYourCulture

Shirt Dress : Hamasisha!

Pants: Thrifted

Pumps: Zara 

Jewelry: uberduka.com/afroshanga 

Miss Vavavum

Xx

Flower power Re-defined

Large traditional style Maasai neck pieces are easy to style especially against white canvases clothes especially so on the top half of the outfit. The colors on these pieces add a little fun to plain-colored outfits

Style the pieces with a timeless floral skirt, white tee, strap-on sandal heels and for a cool-kid effect add on mirrored sunnies.

Or style the look with the very on-trend slip on sneakers,

How would you wear your #MaasaiPiece or #KenyanTraditionalJewelry? Tag me on #OwnYourCultureInstagram

Have a power week! 

Miss Vavavum

Xx

Shine On

When It rains look for the rainbows, when It's dark look for the stars-Unknown

Be awesome, Shine on!

Miss Vavavum

Xx

Siblings Thrift Social 2

The creative scene in Nairobi has grown immensely in the past 5 years especially in the art and fashion industries. One such event  is the style gig - the Thrift Social by 2manysiblings. This past weekend saw the second edition held at Live at the Elephant in Nairobi. 2manysiblings is a brother sister duo of style and art enthusiasts, whose style sense and social media pages are a Pinterest-lovers dream! With their creative photos and a great sense of style to match. Their event, designed to appeal to style mavens and enthusiasts saw Nairobi's best style crowd, from fabulous 'fros to the latest trend in the fashion world and even the Maasai jewelry made appearances(besides myself!)

One half of the 2manysiblings duo ,

Velma

The tastefully curated stands,

 Suave bags,

Given the ever changing weather in Nairobi lately, I opted for my go-to outfit which easily works hot/cold weather, the old and trusted denim x denim. Little story about these pants, bought them 5 years ago when all cuffed harem pants were all the rage, fast forward a year later, trend died brutally and replaced with boyfriend jeans; being a woman of solutions, I ripped them off and thus the end result. And as luck may have It, ripped pants are really in season this year ;)

As part of the #OwnYourCulture campaign I'm running, It's mandatory(to myself mostly) to wear at least one traditional piece. This has greatly enhanced my creativity and envisioning techniques. Whether it's a new purchase or deciding to what to wear, I must always know which color/texture/prints of clothes will work best with these pieces. Lookout for cool Maasai pieces on www.uberduka.com

Lately, I have found that most of my 5 year old fashion pieces making a comebacks(see my post @missvavavum instagram), for example these red tasseled wedges that only come out in the cold season. Note- to pull off the ripped cuffs, make sure to pair the pants with stunning shoes

More style from the event, nude colored boots x shirt dress= this season's total style win!

When sports wear meets office wear,

Absolutely loved how she wore her Maasai necklaces!

For more street style, fashion and the event check out their site 2manysiblings 

Miss Vavavum

Xx