Fashion Feature: Roots By Culture- Storytellers Of Fashionkynd

Blessed,

This post is to profile my dear friend Gorata Blackdotah Aiah and her fashion and lifestyle brand, Roots By Culture: Storytellers of Fashionkynd. I remember us sitting together a few years ago, her eyes lit up as she shared her vision with me: a brand that was about more than trends, more than price tags, an idea of fashion as identity, self-expression and visual communication. Now in 2013, the dream has come alive! Aiah is more than a fashion designer, she is also a stylist, make-up artist, image consultant,and is also proficient in jewellery design and beadwork. She recently opened her shop in Johannesburg's stylish Maboneng Precinct on the corner of Main Road and Maritzburg Street. The space is unique, a large showroom filled with shipping containers where various artists, crafters and traders have space to showcase and sell their work. There is a definite sense of community, youth and a fresh outlook on life and design. It is the perfect place for Aiah to birth her dream!

Aiah explains, "In fashion theory I learnt in depth how fashion is more than just
clothes, bags and shoes that are showcased by famous people and celebrities.
That is what Aiah call adding “style” to fashion. Fashion is a lifestyle, a way
of life or a livity. It’s an external expression of what's going on internally;
our mind, body and spirit portrayed through our image...

My point is music or sound energy and other things like
books/magazines/articles/journals/blogs/websites we read, the content we watch
on TV, if we watch TV play a bigger role than we are aware of in our well beings
as humans. If you listen to dirty music for example, you will become dirty music
eventually because it’s something which you chant or recite. It’s repetitive and
so it will live in your sub conscience and eventually it becomes habitual making
it a ritual and a rituals purpose is to make manifest. So, eventually dirty is
what you will become. Technology also plays its part in identifying one on a
social standard."

So what is Aiah saying? "At Storytellers of Fashionkynd we have realized
that if we can all identify who we are on the inside then we can easily let
people know who we truly are from the outside. Aren’t you tired of being
mislabelled coz of how you appear?"

To find out more about her, check out her website at: http://www.storytellersoffashionkynd.com