How Togolese Rooted Bag Designer Hogoé Kpessou is Becoming the New Face of African Luxury

In less than two years, Hogoé Kpessou and her self-titled womenswear label have blown up thanks to the popularity of the label’s leather handbags.

What is luxury when not white and dripping with European heritage? This is the question that Togolese-American designer Hogoé Kpessou is trying to answer. Her namesake womenswear label is winning over a small following with its leather handbags. They are crafted as messenger backpacks, saddle bags, purses, and rendered in a variety of colors like hunter green, honey brown, and lavender. But it’s the ingenious details that elevates the product, the cresting of bumblebees and fireflies.

In October of 2020, Kpessou established her brand in the crucible of the COVID-19 pandemic. In barely two years, the label has caught the eye of mainstream pop culture. Its messenger bag was featured on an episode of Bel-Air. Janelle James, star of ABC’s hit show Abbott Elementary, held a saddle bag at the premiere last December. This September, Kpessou will debut her label at New York Fashion Week.

It’s been a long journey for Kpessou. At six, Kpessou came to the US, where she grappled with racism. “My experience in America was rather a love-hate relationship for a long time,” she said. “Coming to terms with racism at a young age, watching my mother experience it but not be aware fully of it.’’

There was also xenophobia. In school, her name was mocked, ridiculed as “hoe go away.” She found this puzzling, mainly because she didn’t expect to be mistreated by people who looked like her. “I grew up hearing it and it strained the relationship between me and my cultural identity,’’ she said. “What was once normal became uncomfortable in this new world that had its rules and regulations.’’

Hogoé, which means “light of God/chosen one,’’ is also a name given to the first daughter in Togolese families. The microaggressions she faced only motivated her to succeed even more. While working jobs as a way to pay for school, she did modeling on the side. It wasn’t always smooth, though. She didn’t work for the big brands. She modeled for friends and smaller brands on Instagram, where she was consistently underpaid.

Today, her name is no longer a punchline for jokes but a symbol of luxury. For Kpessou, luxury is an experience, which is why she incorporates convenience more than ever into her designs. She’s also diversifying the concept into other products.

She started with making clothes, but bags were made first in the end. “It was just easier to get a bag right before the clothes which required countless samples and correction for proper fitting.’’ She said.

The bags, seemingly, are the label’s catchiest merchandise across its product categories. With the insect motifs, the bags also carry a kind of sentimental storytelling for the label.

“For the bees, it means you can find the sweetness in life,” she said. “For the firefly, it’s for guidance in the dark. I was a writer at one point so it only makes sense to have the same metaphors find themselves in my work.”

Source: Okay Africa