Eguana Kampala’s Latest Collection is Their Most Wearable Yet

Just in time for the holidays!

Just in time for the holidays, Eguana Kampala has released their Travel SS/22 collection, a beautiful ode to the ‘70s. According to Emmanuel Bagwana, the creative director of the brand, the collection was inspired by travel.

“People say fashion is something that you use to get away; you can put on a shirt and feel like you are in Paris, yet you’re in a small town somewhere in northern or western Uganda. That’s what inspired us to have travel as the theme for the collection,” he says.

What direction did you take for Travel SS/22?

The direction for this collection was more commercial and wearable. We are a ready-to-wear brand. I wanted to go more into the ready-to-wear territory this time to make clothes that are ready for people to wear. And I guess part of that was because of the times we are in, and there are no runway shows and major fashion weeks. Right now, we’re mostly focusing on selling directly to the consumers. I also wanted to do something with an East African element. Most times we release collections for international people who visit our pages from other countries.

Ask, is this Uganda, African or East African? A lot of the time, the prints are probably not even African. So, this time we wanted something actually true to home, and at least we managed to get some East African prints in the collection? And also, the jewellery is made in the region. Hopefully at some point, we’ll even be able to produce a fully Ugandan collection. I’m hoping that the print industry will reach that level or the textile industry will get to a level where designers can create full collections out of Ugandan fabric because that’s an easier way to even market it out of here because it’s different from what everyone else has.

What was the inspiration for the collection?

This is actually our second travel-inspired collection. The first one was done probably 3 or 4 years ago three years ago. This time, it was like that ironic thing where you’re stuck in one place, but you’re inspired by travel. People say fashion is something that you use to get away; you can put on a shirt and feel like you are in Paris, yet you’re in a small town somewhere in northern or western Uganda. That’s what inspired us to have travel as the theme for the collection.

The inspiration was travel which is ironic since we haven’t been travelling. We have been locked down. As much as we are locked down, we are still travelling, we are watching TV and documentaries. There’s a show I used to watch online where this guy would show us different places in Kenya, but he had drone shots as if we were in Kenya. When I watched it, I started looking for similar shows in different countries. It felt like I was travelling as much as I was in one place.

Then also music – creatives tend to travel through music. It helped to inspire, and once the country reopened, I still tried to move around the area to get more inspiration.

A lot of the pieces have a retro feel to them. Which era inspired you the most as you were putting the pieces together?

Yeah, that’s very true. Most times, our collections tend to have that 1960s and 70s vibe to them and maybe some things 90s, but I guess the 70s and 60s are some of my favourite eras because there’s that earthy tone that was very common. At the time, print was very common, and that’s part of our brand aesthetic. Silhouettes of that time like flowing kimonos and maxi’s are the shapes that I usually work with. And I guess it just comes naturally that that era would inspire the collection a lot. So, I think the 60s and 70s are my favourite eras. So, for some reason, the brain finds itself getting redirected to that era.

So far this season, we went back to doing like an equal amount of women’s and men’s wear because, at some point, we were focused mostly on menswear and just a few women’s pieces, but then like people were asking, our female clients were wondering why we were not catering to them. So this time around, we decided to do both sides and women’s wear. As I mentioned, we are in uncertain times, so people have to think of their budgets and timing.

So many of the pieces we made can be transformed like a maxi dress, which is a button front. It’s almost like a shirt dress, but it can convert into a maxi dress that you can wear for a formal event. It can convert into a cover-up that you can wear at the beach with your swimwear. It can convert into a shirt that you can wear with jeans on a day out, and it can also convert into something sexier, like with a very high slit that you can wear, like for a cocktail or date.

The direction this time around was for men and women’s wear. And our unisex pieces, which we always have and obviously print, which is our signature didn’t miss out too. Yeah, but you’re going to see a lot of new prints, a lot of new colours, new textures. Then we also have a bit of denim in the collection. So yeah, we tried to introduce a lot of new elements this time around but still stayed true to our streetwear and ready to wear roots.

It has largely been a difficult year for creatives. How have you kept yourself inspired hence the new collection?

Yeah. So one advantage about being a creative is that there’s always something to inspire you like you don’t even need to go very far to get inspiration. You can’t even get it from your house, and you can get it from the neighbourhood. So for some reason, COVID and curfews and lockdown helped us rediscover our immediate neighbourhoods because I, like the first lockdown, found me in the US, and I was in one suburban neighbourhood. However, I still discovered a lot in that area, which contributed to the collection.

Then the second lockdown found me in Kampala, but still, we were walking around the neighbourhood. I walked around the neighborhood and got to discover new things that I didn’t even know about. So all that led to more inspiration for the collection. And also, sometimes when you’re stuck in one space. The brain is forced to be more creative because things don’t just come easy. Like you don’t travel to the beach in Mombasa and just see sand and water. You have a collection like, yeah, you have to think deeper for something because you’re in the same space and still have to come up with something. So that’s why the collection took a bit of time because there was a brain freeze at first.

And I guess that happened for many creatives because we were not working. The last campaign we did was in 2019, and the previous runway show basically was in 2019. So, there was a bit of a brain freeze, but that also helped bring this other drastic inspiration that led to this collection.

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Eguana Kampala is always associated with comfort. What tips can you share on how one can best style some of these pieces?

Yeah, that’s true. One of the most important things to me about fashion is comfort because if you feel uncomfortable, however expensive or nice your outfit is, you won’t be confident. If you’re taking pictures, maybe on the red carpet and the slit is tearing, it will show on your face. Part of our brand aesthetic is comfort and ease. Someone can easily incorporate our pieces into their wardrobe. And I guess that’s why we are primarily a ready-to-wear brand because we like comfortable things. We want something easy to wear.

Some tips on how someone can wear or style the pieces; the womenswear I mentioned earlier, we have some of those dresses that you can wear. They are in a format of shirt dresses so you can choose to button the whole thing, from the neck downwards and wear it as a maxi dress, like if you’re going to church, if you’re going to meet your in-laws, if you’re going for a wedding like you can choose that. If you’re going for a date or something where you need to be a bit less closed up, you can open the buttons a bit, maybe to the knee or wherever you’re comfortable with, then you can also belt the maxi dress if you want to.

Because they’re cut in an airline shape so you can belt them, like if you want to define your waist a bit and give it a more modern silhouette because that now takes it away from that more retro feel, so you can do that, or if you want a 1950s sort of silhouette, you can still belt it and button the whole thing up. And then you can also choose to wear them as shirts or tops with pants inside or leggings or shorts, whatever you want. Or even swimwear as a cover-up.

Of course, for the men’s pieces, the bomber jackets and the shirts, you can wear them with denim. If it’s a formal event, you can wear them with black pants and maybe tuck in, or you can wear the shirt because the shirts are cut on the sides. So they’re meant to be worn when they are not tucked in. so, you can wear them with some dressy pants and dressy shoes and go for a wedding or graduation or church. Then for the Bomber Jackets, there is another way to style them that most people don’t know, but I’ve seen some people do. You can wear it with formal pants like for work and your dressy shoes, a tie, and a formal shirt.

Many people do know that you can style the bomber jackets like that. People reserve them for casual wear, but you can actually wear it on a workday, especially if it’s cold or rainy. You just put it over your white shirt and black tie and pants. And yeah, I guess that’s just some of the styling. I like it when people mix up pieces with other pieces and blend them into their style, and we don’t like people to look like a copy-paste of what we shoot in our look books. That’s why I am always interested in people who like incorporating our pieces in their own personal style.

Lastly, 2022 is here. What trends do you see emerging and taking over during the next few months?

Well, 2022 is another uncertain year. We are not sure if it’s going to be another 2021 or 2020, for that matter. But, whenever there is adversity, humans tend to embrace, very flashy fashion; they embrace colour and prints. So I many things coming back like neons and vibrant prints like tropical prints. Then there’s also a modern kind of print we haven’t seen before. So, print is something that’s coming back.

Also, logomania is still huge. I’m not so keen on it, but it’s a huge trend that you’re still going to see for some time. Streetwear is still a major influence. And also people are learning to take streetwear to an evening. You find somebody hitting a red carpet wearing streetwear, but converting it into something more formal.

Oversized is also still a major trend. Apparently, skinny jeans are out. I’m not so much of a trend person. I’ve always been a personal style sort of person. So, I wouldn’t listen to any rules. Just wear what you like so long as you a comfortable and confident, that’s what matters. So as much as the trends that are coming up, don’t let that affect you. Yeah. Then maybe another thing that I’ve seen is a lot of retro. Like the 70s, the 90s are still here, but not as big maybe as they were two years ago. But the 70s and 60s are quite huge. The platforms are still a big influence.

Remember, last year, one of the biggest trends was the platform. It’s still here, and you can incorporate that with one of our maxis. So, yeah, but personal style is becoming the biggest trend as the world progresses. That’s why you see nowadays you go maybe for a fashion show, and the street style is just a mix of different trends. You don’t find a uniform. You don’t find people wearing spring summer 22 trends. The biggest trend is personal style. Just get your personal style, don’t copy it. Just be yourself, and you’ll be surprised just how good you feel when it’s your style.

But, in case the lockdown comes back, we see comfort will remain a huge trend because, like in the past, yeah, and maybe in 2020 and 2021, comfort has been a huge trend. People got into joggers, into loungewear, into kimonos, into silk pants like those oversized pants, because we were staying home a lot and working from home. No one wanted to dress up in uncomfortable clothes while chilling at home, running after kids or cleaning the house and doing their office work simultaneously. So, I guess, comfort is here to stay. People have discovered that you can be comfortable and stylish, and it’s something that’s here to stay.