When people mention African fashion, more of ten than not, they will only talk about African cloth prints. Recently, however, an African online fashion brand called Babatunde has emerged in Africa, theUnited Statesand Europe, which seeks to broaden this narrow stereotype. Babatunde uses traditional African print fabrics favored by black women to make dresses and produce items such as Western-style caps, hats and clutch bags.

"I really appreciate the Babatunde products because they represent South Africa's urban culture by fusing modern cap shapes with African prints," said Mpumelelo Mfula, one of the brand's stockists inJohannesburg. 

The brand founder, fashion stylist Gareth Cowden, hoped that his products will give more options to foreign tourists who usually only take home souvenirs like painted ostrich eggs, stone carvings, woodcarvings of the Big Five animals, hand-woven beaded giraffes, or aloe vera gel and Rooibos tea.

However, the most important aspect of Babatunde is that it encourages new fashion brands and is the backstory of young African entrepreneurs who have the foresight and courage to start up a new business model and create job opportunities for themselves and others. 

Lucky break

There are many online stores operating in South Africa, but very few are operated by young individuals, and even less in the field of fashion.

Cowden launched an online webstore in July 2010. "The problem when you are starting up a business is that you cannot afford a physical one," he said, having noticed that webstores are becoming more popular with young people.

His web fashion store sells a range of up to 18 Babatunde products, all made with African prints and manufactured in South Africa, ranging from ties, cravats, clutch bags, children's headwear, adults' caps and reversible bucket hats to iPad covers and beach umbrellas. Each product is unique due to fabric cuts as well as limited prints.

Since the launch of the brand and the webstore, Cowden has established 15 stockists in Africa (12 in South Africa, the other three in Kenya,Tanzania and Namibia), two in the United Statesand four in Europe. In addition, it has also got a dozen online stockists in South Africa, Sweden, the Netherlands, France and the United States.

How did Babatunde become known to retailers and how has the brand promoted itself? "It is amazing," said Cowden. "The buyers know us from incidents. We were very lucky to have people like (Beyonce's sister) Solange Knowles, an American singer, model and designer, and Erykah Badu, a singer and actress in the United States, to wear my caps in a performance at a fashion week in New York." Since then people have approached Babatunde wanting to sell the brand's products, rather than the other way round. Cowden said he would like to make it a quality African brand before promoting the products. 

West African inspiration

Cowden got his inspiration from his journey toGabonin 2007. At the time he was working as a stylist in Dubai. He was invited by a friend to spend the Easter holidays with her family in Gabon. He traveled to Gabon,Ghana and Mozambiqueon the two-week journey seeing people everywhere wearing color prints. He was deeply impressed by an Africa which is so different to South Africa.

This spurred him on to create something uniquely African that the continent's people could feel proud of. "I only came up with the idea of Babatunde two years later, when it dawned on me how I could include that beautiful vibrancy in Africa and combine it with current or contemporary trends," said Cowden.

The brand gets its name from Yoruba, an ethnic group in southwest Nigeria and south Beninin West Africa, meaning "the father comes back," or "the father returns."

It speaks about a phenomenon of many fathers not being around to raise families because of various reasons and calls for people to be more conscious, more responsible personally and to others.  

Cowden said he was fortunate to be raised in a stable environment, learning much from his parents. In contrast he has seen many young children who have not learned the basic lessons of life while growing up, and he hoped the brand could raise awareness around this issue as the products became more popular.

Opportunities for youth

Cowden operates with a webstore (www.babatunde.co.za) and one employee working in his studio, dealing with everything from fabrics to products and even answering phones.

He gets fabrics from Benin, though some of them are produced in Ghana andChina, because if he buys from China he needs to buy a minimum of 110,000 meters, which is too big an order for the size of current production needs.

Cowden then sources manufacturers across South Africa, orders products and delivers to stockists for sales.

The operation model has created opportunities for young Africans to start their own businesses.

Mpumelelo Mfula opened a webstore called RHTC, an acronym for Returning Home to Create (www.Rhtconline.com), selling Babatunde products after he graduated from Wits University inJohannesburg, because he didn't have much confidence with the prospects of employment. "I then decided to take my destiny in my own hands by starting and growing my own business," said Mfula. "I decided to go online because I only had about $200 remaining in my bank account," he said.

Mfula is one of the few young men in South Africa owning a webstore, selling Babatunde and other local quality products.

"At the moment, a webstore guarantees a humble lifestyle, as it covers the basic costs and a few other things on good months," he said. But he was confident that those who own independent webstores will make a lot of money.

Mfula recently had his website upgraded so that he can receive payments and deliver to and from anywhere in the world. He is now thinking about developing a smart phone mobile app to facilitate online shopping for his store. 

Future plans

Like all other businesses, the biggest problem for Cowden is cash flow. The store has to buy fabrics, labels and pay manufacturers upfront, while some people who buy from the store don't pay stock upfront.

He admitted that he does not have a business background and should learn more about negotiation and pricing with his manufacturers. But despite these challenges, Cowden has "big plans."

He said that he is trying to make Babatunde more of a quality African brand with well manufactured products, and will expand the brand portfolio by adding more things for kids and for homewear. In addition, the brand will explore different lines to include an exclusive high-end range of products, as well as a more affordable everyday range. Cowden also plans to design his own fabrics and then source manufacturers to make products according to his designs with his own fabrics.

Cowden hopes to take Babatunde to as many markets as possible. He said that while he didn't know much about Chinese fashion, he thought that trends in China today would not be too much different from those in Africa. Trends are often global and if people in China were to like Babatunde products, "it will be amazing," said Cowden.

(Reporting from South Africa)