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Careers • Families • Life Experiences • M
university of guelph
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PHOTO COURTESY KILAKITU CLOTHING
Andrew Kimani, left, and Bart Sullivan
t m ay n o t b e a global fashion mecca, but Nairobi, Kenya, is the birthplace of a unique clothing company that blends the western style of Canada with the vibrant and colourful energy of Africa. Co-founded by Bart Sullivan, BA ’02, and Kenyan Andrew Kimani, Kilakitu Clothing blends culture and style while helping to support the local community. Kilakitu is known for its line of classic men’s cowboy shirts, throwbacks to the 1970s Stetson shirts that were once in high demand in North America and around the world and can still be found in many wardrobes today. Sullivan picked up his Stetson at a second-hand shop in Berlin, en route to Kenya, where he moved in 2008. One day he realized that his creamcoloured shirt was showing the effects of daily commuting in rough and gritty Nairobi, so he asked Kimani, a tailor, to re-create the shirt in darker colours. Kimani used fabrics found in the sec-
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PHOTO BY ROSS DAVIDSON-PILON
great grad ideas
Cowboy shirts connect two worlds
28 The Portico
ond-hand clothing markets of Nairobi — clothing that people in Canada and other wealthy countries have discarded. Amazed by the result, Sullivan thought there might be a market for this type of shirt, and Kilakitu Clothing was born. Their first batch of 58 shirts was offered online and nearly sold out in the first week. Sullivan says he’s now working to manage the growing demand and plans to expand the company into other African nations. “The beauty of the ‘Kenyan Cowboy’ shirt is that it’s a blend of two worlds,” he says.“It has the western form of the cowboy shirt mixed with the expressiveness of African colour preferences. My tailors are the ones who pick the colours and patterns. It was funny at first because I was picking all these subtle and comparatively drab combinations until one day I let them pick. They were outrageous! At first it was a bit overwhelming for me: pink, orange and lime green cowboy shirts? But I’ve
come to realize that this is part of the beauty of the collaboration.” Sullivan was raised in Guelph, where he organized concerts and demonstrations and hosted various radio shows on CFRU. He travelled to Mexico, Barbados and Malaysia before enrolling at U of G, where he completed an individual studies BA that combined computing science and rural extension studies. His introduction to Kenya occurred in 2002 after he accepted an internship with the African Virtual University, a World Bank organization providing subSaharan Africa with satellite-based distance education at the university level. He draws on his radio background and experience in rural extension studies in his current job with Farm Radio International, an Ottawa-based NGO. Specifically, he is helping the African Farm Radio Research Initiative explore the role that radio can play in improving access to relevant and useful information for African farmers. “I see my place in the world as a connector,” he says. “I love meeting new people, learning what they’re up to and then connecting them to other people I know. I’ve recently discovered that it’s something I’ve done all my life through music, social movements and now through a clothing company based in East Africa.” Sullivan has high hopes for the expansion of Kilakitu Clothing and would like to create Kilakitu Records to facilitate collaborative music projects between African and western musicians, in much the same fashion as his clothing line. To learn more about Kilakitu Clothing, go to www.kilakituclothing.com. By Rebecca Kendall