Unfortunately, as much as we wanted to, we did not make another round of Kenyan Cowboys for this year’s christmas.

On the brighter side – we had our own little cowgirl born on September 7th 2011 in Arusha!  Niah Achieng’ Sullivan is our first daughter and we are so so pleased.

If you would like to donate some Christmas hampers for the children in Rongai, we are doing our annual christmas party for the kids.  Get over to the site and buy some baskets!

One of the reasons is that, sadly, one of our main tailors – George – passed away in November – and his good friend Timothy our lead tailor has been busy making arrangements for the funeral and the family.

In other news, I (Bart) am getting married in February here in Kenya and I have been taking all the energy of our tailors to make my groomsmen’s outfits! (only partially kidding).

Remembering our 2008 Xmas - sadly no shirts this year

We fully plan to launch some new shirts in 2011 and we will announce to those interested.

Thank you and many blessings this holiday!

bART and the Kilakitu team

Lamu rd - Shirt of the day Dec 4th

This shirt is an Ode to Lamu, a series of islands off the East coast of Kenya in the Indian Ocean.

Sensitive yet thorny!

I know this shirt might look overwhelming at first as a men’s cowboy shirt – it once reminded me of a couch my Nana once had – BUT it looks amazing on! The purple snaps make this shirt! Have a look at our tailor come model, Timothy, having a sensitive and thorny moment in this shirt. Im telling you, this shirt is incredible!

Moi ave – Shirt of the day Dec 3rd

Buy the Moi ave shirt at www.kilakituclothing.com

And so the day began with naming a shirt after Kenya’s long feared and respected ex-president: M-O-I. My Kenyan friends tell me that the country feared Moi and his secret police so much that if you wanted to talk about him, you would need to look around the room and refer to him discreetly as “emm oh eye” – somehow that was safer

SK rockin the Moi ave.

I love this shirt for how bold the color red is and the red snaps and the red pattern – it is just amazing.  And have you seen how awesome “SK” (our model) looks in it?  Dont let the slightly overexposed photo trick you (we are kinda still figuring out how to take our product pics – outside!) – look at the model pics and you’ll fall in love with this shirt.  Rock on!

Njugu lane - Shirt of the day Nov 30th

Ndugu is kiswahili for brother or roughly translated as comrade. Here are a few of the reasons I love this shirt:

• Njugu lane is a street in Nairobi (see map) with big mosques (and churches?) on it AND its also just behind Biashara st where I get our snaps from!
• The word Njugu sounds alot like Ndugu – which is a really fun word to say in Swahili
• I am a convert to brown on brown on brown – even though I dont really wear brown myself, for anyone who does: this shirt can take the prize your/their wardrobe! Amazing!

Kuishi - Shirt of the day Nov 7th

Life comes and goes.  Little ones are born as older ones pass on.  This is my shirt of the day for several reasons:

• It is named after a methali (A Swahili proverb) which speaks of life: “Kuishi kwingi ni kuona mengi” – to live long is to see a lotLife is  Something I have learnt a great deal about in the past year – my mother passed on while I was in Kenya in 2008.  My mother always said “I am a little older than you – I have seen more sunsets – therefore, I get to go first”.  This shirt honours exactly that: length of life and how much you see (It is also part of a collection of shirts called the Methali series
  
• The patterns on this shirt, mined from Gikomba, are very reminiscent of the
  

  Qbert was my first arcade video game

  first video game I ever played!  Q-Bert.

What is the shirt of the day all about?

I have many many favorite Kenyan Cowboy shirts that I wear – the UNEP, the DO Misiani and a few other unnamed ones.  In fact, one of the hardest parts of this job, as well as being the most fun, is looking at each shirt after it has been created and then letting go and passing it on to offer to others.

So this shirt of the day is a chance for me to say why I love these shirts so much and to say goodbye to them in a way.

Africa like pow!

Earthy and free

Amazing variety

Tanzanian fabrics!

The boys and I decided to pile into my new friend Luka’s Rav4 (owner of www.bongo5.com) to see what Swahili Fashion week was all about.  We managed to get some press passes, which was a blessing because the event was otherwise sold out.

On the catwalk we found some of Tanzania’s foremost fashion designers creations.  I believe it was my first real fashion show!  I found myself

admiring how fashion is art and then with time it trickles down and influences the way we dress and wear our clothes and present ourselves in public.

I circulated a few business cards for Kilakitu and the response was enormous!  Everyone was keen to learn more about what we’re doing, how we market internationally and when will we get our Kenyan cowboys on the catwalk.  Next year!  Its all about timing …