How Kahindo Mateene Is Building an Ethical Fashion Brand One Colorful Design at a Time

Those years when she was "always surrounded by color" are formative to her work as the founder and primary operator of the fashion brand named after her. Mateene, who moved to the U.S. in her teens for college and is now based in New York, draws inspiration from her African heritage and the diverse cultures she has encountered. KAHINDO offers colorful pieces defined by striking print designs and textures, as well as a fresh reinterpretation of traditional African fashion.

Beyond helming aesthetically striking pieces, Mateene's brand is creating social impact through its consistent collaborations with African tailors and textile designers, focusing on empowering women, paying them livable wages, and fostering sustainable jobs across several African countries.

A key decision Mateene made when launching KAHINDO in 2017 was to move production to Africa. "That has been the most challenging part of my business, but it's also been the most rewarding," she says. "It's when I moved production to Africa that my business started to grow, and I think it's because I really wanted to make an impact. There are numerous fashion brands out there, and we've heard about the treatment of people, especially women, in countries like China and India. I wanted to do the opposite of that."

Producing in Africa means sourcing materials locally and sometimes working across multiple countries. Mateene shares that material for one of her collections was sourced from local fabric makers in Nigeria and then sent to Kenya to be cut and sewn. In another instance, she collaborated with an organization that focuses on refugee girls, engaging them in making tie-dye fabric for a collection.

Mateene, the daughter of a diplomat, leans into the awareness of her privilege, a direct result of her grandmother's efforts to ensure her father's education despite dire financial circumstances. KAHINDO paying women "so they can support their families and their children" is her driving force for running an independent fashion brand.

"Now that my business has this bigger mission of creating jobs and helping align with three of the United Nations sustainable development goals, every time there's a challenge, every time I want to quit my business, I remember all those women that I've worked with," she says.

KAHINDO is Mateene's second attempt at a fashion brand; her first attempt was MODAHNIK, launched in 2009, following curiosity from her American friends about the outfits she would come back with after visiting Congo. "I did what I used to do every Christmas, which is go to the market, find fabric, go to the tailor, and have them make something because that's how we do it in Congo and a lot of African countries," she recalls. "Then I came back to Chicago at that time, and many of my friends were like, 'Oh my God, we want that, we want that.'"

After unsuccessfully trying to source the same materials for her first pieces locally, Mateene turned to Vlisco, the Dutch textile company known for making and selling African print fabrics, and started producing pieces for MODAHNIK in the U.S. and China.

By then, she had earned a second degree in fashion design after her first degree in international business and economics. In 2011, she was in the Chicago Fashion Incubator at Macy's on State Street program, and she went on to become a contestant on Project Runway in 2013. However, she shuttered her first brand when she moved to New York in 2015.

"I think I was maybe ahead of the curve because in 2009, 2010, people were not wearing African things like how it is now," she says.

With KAHINDO, Mateene has had to be resourceful and resilient, essentially working as a one-woman team. Resourcefulness is what got her brand to feature on a billboard in New York's Times Square. "It was very simple, and I think it's just asking questions," she says. "Last year, I saw a woman I know who also owns a fashion tech business on a billboard, and she talked about it on LinkedIn and Instagram, and I asked her how it happened after congratulating her. Essentially, it was a perk of opening a business account with this new bank that supports small businesses. She referred me, I opened an account, and that's how it happened."

Getting a billboard slot in Times Square didn't impact Mateene's business in terms of sales, but she believes "it's good for press," with her social media posts of the billboard getting a lot of likes.

Without access to proper funding beyond a few small grants, KAHINDO's slow growth is mainly due to the profits it generates. "Also, a lot of people don't know this, but I've had to fund my business through having a full-time day job," she says, adding that she designs like five percent of the time and that doing everything herself limits growth.

Mateene is moving KAHINDO at a steady pace, with plans that she believes will help the business grow, including improving her focus on selling to Africans on the continent. In October, she'll be presenting at a fashion show in Nairobi, Kenya, following a show in Ethiopia earlier this year. She hopes to be stocked in more stores across the continent, and although pricing will be less expensive than in the U.S., she understands that her brand's target market will be "for the customer who has that disposable income to spend."

The designer also hopes to hire sales and marketing professionals and expand her offerings to include more plus-size collections. “Currently, my brand only goes up to 2XL, which is like a size 16/18 in the US, but those are the sizes that always sell out the fastest because all women want to look beautiful, and our tagline is to make women feel good by wearing color and prints. That should be accessible to everyone."