Inside KONA SS2020 Earth Conscious Collection

It’s rare for an haute couture show to start with a T-shirt, but KONA begun the show with a statement. A T-shirt with HOME on the front and the back had a chilling statement, “there’s no planet B.” A wake-up call for sure, that as we were having the time of our lives at a fashion show we shouldn’t forget that the world is dying and we can save it.

This collection, dubbed “threads” showed just how easy it was for us to help our earth, with sustainable fashion. Along with the message was a flurry of earthy colours; greens, mustards and browns along with patchwork in a lot of the printed pieces. This brought the message in garments that may not have space for words.

To make sure there wasn’t room for misinterpretation, Kona gave out free keychains made of upcycled cloth and a pamphlet that explained what the significance of the collection was. in part it read, “We have upcycled more than 100 pairs of denim giving it new life… Be ethical as well as fashionable.“

Bhavya Kalsi, the designer behind Kona had more to add, “It’s an Afro Indian collection. You know at our weddings we wear the Sari, even in Uganda. We eat pilao, we eat chapatti. But generally I wanted to bring that fusion and show that in East Africa we have existed together for a long time. So the inspiration was the African roots; the bold prints, kitenge, and the cuts were from the Indian roots, the Sari, and if you saw the stitching, it’s called ‘threads’, the collection is called threads. The threads is because we are rescuing lots of clothes from Owino and then patch them up, like the long jackets, which are hand embroidered, and are stitched together, and threads connect; people and the clothing. The “Home” part was because my face is always questioned when I say Uganda is home. Home is where the heart is, and the planet is our home, Uganda is our home, and there is no Planet B, so if we don’t start to upcyle, and recycle, we won’t have a home anymore.

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