This Nostalgic Lookbook Showcases Comfy Knitwear With A Playful Ghanaian Twist

Ghanaian designer Jane Odartey wants her throwback-inspired knitwear collection Sane Momo to encourage us to live in the present.

This Nostalgic Lookbook Showcases Comfy Knitwear With A Playful Ghanaian Twist

Ghanaian designer Jane Odartey wants Mawusi's latest collection of knitwear to encourage us to live in the present. Hence, the name Sane Momo, a phrase that translates to "old concerns" in the Krobo dialect.


"[Sane Momo] is interested in extracting that which we long for in the past and placing it into something that has value to the present and in so doing to encourage living in the present," Odartey told Okayafrica via email.

The star of the collection is undoubtedly the granny square, as the designer describes it. Intrigued by the sense of comfort typically associated with the classic pattern, she considered ways to make the squares contemporary, playful, and exciting to suit the Mawusi individual. That's where her Ghanaian heritage came into play.

"The average Ghanaian’s sense of fashion is incredibly colorful, festive, and wonderfully eclectic," writes Odartey.

Partially inspired by the nostalgia-inducing Throwback Thursday hashtag, each piece from the Mawusi Fall/Winter 2015 collection was designed, handmade, modeled and photographed by Odartey in her Queens, New York, home.

"Mawusi is very DIY," she says. "It is the story of being driven by passion despite lack of funds and connection. It is using what you have and making the best of it."

Visit the Mawusi website to learn more and shop the Sane Momo collection.

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