About Me
Hi, I’m Carina and I am a Fashion Marketing graduate from UEL
My fashion aesthetic, sense of style and creativity, are greatly influenced by my upbringing, cultural heritage, life in the diaspora and my travels and exposure to other cultures. My interests are centred on promoting Ethical Fashion, Sustainability and Diversity in Fashion
Among my main influences for my final project is one of my favourite designers, the Haitian-Italian designer Stella Jean whose designs are greatly inspired by Africa and her Italian-Haitian heritage. I love her fashion aesthetic and am inspired by her professional values and ethics and her desire to make fashion that is meaningful. For many of her collections, she has collaborated with artisans from under-privileged communities in Africa and Haiti and is a partner of the ITC Ethical Fashion Initiative.
INSPIRATION
My project idea was inspired by my travels in Southern Africa and encounters with local artisans.
Each time I travel back home to Africa I am always amazed by the creativity of the local artisans and designers and I always find so many beautiful unique handmade pieces that I can’t find or purchase here in the UK. It also saddened me to see that despite the amazing talent and all the hard work that these local artisans put into their crafts, they were barely making ends meet and didn’t really have an adequate platform or the necessary resources to promote and sell their products.
It occurred to me that it would be great if we could purchase some of these products online and have them shipped directly from Africa to the UK. This is how the idea for MIA was born.
MY WORK
PORTFOLIOS
DETAIL
MIA is an ecommerce platform specialising in Southern African artisanal clothing and accessories.
It will also serve as a networking platform for Southern African artisans and designers to collaborate and to link them with European & international designers and brands. The project focus is on promoting, social enterprise and creating gainful employment for Southern African artisans. Through this project, I aspire to help maximise Africa’s entrepreneurial potential by providing a platform for the artisans to showcase their talent and to market and sell their goods on an international scale. The brand name has special personal significance to me as it is derived from my daughter’s name and is also a contraction of the term "Made in Africa". By using the name Made in Africa (MIA), the intention is to first and foremost, highlight the origination of the artisans/designers and their products. Made in Africa also evokes ethical, sustainable, handmade products made from natural raw materials.
There is such an untapped wealth of talent, craftsmanship and creativity in Southern Africa and my hope is to create a bridge connecting these very talented designers and artisans to markets in Europe
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