AKASO

Akaso is a Belgian concept label uniting African artists and Belgian designers - it is the brainchild of Philippe Vertriest, father of two daughters with Ethiopian roots and a strong believer in Africa’s creative talent. With Akaso he endeavors to build a platform showcasing contemporary African art and culture – with a contemporary label as its first expression.

From the encounter with the book Painted Bodies. African Body Painting, Tattoos & Scarification, Philippe developed the idea of a collaborative design label. Each collection grows from a co-creation workshop between African artists and the resident Akaso Belgian designers.

For its 2016 collections Akaso choose to work with the Kara people in Ethiopia, one of Africa’s most authentic tribes and renown fort heir abstract body painting art.

Philippe met the Kara people for the first time in March 2014. He managed to connect with this closed community with the support of an Ethiopian anthropologist. He invited the Kara community to give a new dimension to Kara body painting art. The beginning of something beautiful and new, of a strong bond, and it took the Kara only one night to select six young Kara artists, men and women : The Kara Six.

The first Akaso collection celebrates one of Africa’s oldest art forms: body painting. A fascinating act of transformation using the skin as a canvas and the earth as their palette. During the co-creation workshops, the Kara Six were creatively challenged by Belgian design duo Sandrina Fasoli and Michaël Marson who incorporated the Kara designs in the Akaso collection. Sandrina and Michaël graduated from the prestigious Brussels La Cambre Fashion Academy and won several international awards.

The workshops took place in December 2014 at the Kara village Duz, where Kara men and women explored together with Sandrina and Michael the codes of transformation of Kara body painting : codes of desire, status or simply expressing a state of mind. No script, intuition rules.

Akaso SS16 brings luxury basics - Tees and Sweatshirts – with prints designed by the Kara people, a clean cut and exceptional fabrics. Urban contemporary - fusion & global inclusion.