Among the hundreds of thousands of
residents living in one of the continent’s largest urban
slums are artisans and creatives who are putting the
buzzing community on fashion’s global mapMade in Kibera
M
ore than 7,000 miles away
from the lavish fanfare of New
York City’s Fifth Avenue,
Kibera’s bustling streets tell a diver-
gent story of fashion ingenuity.
Throughout the Nairobi area settle-
ment, bold colors and secondhand
style abound among the mud huts that
have come to define the “Chocolate
City.” Kibera was not always a center
for fashion, but today it stands as an
emerging scene for the
artists who have chosen
their bodies as canvases
and carefully curate their
ensembles as a means of
self-expression. Clad in
conspicuous garments,
these men and
women are
painting a rich
picture of the
Kenyan com-
munity most
often defined
by its abject
poverty.
For pho-
tographer
Brian Otieno,
the opportunity to capture
Kibera’s evolving fashion
footprint on film has led to
an internationally recognized
passion project. CNN, the
BBC, The New York Times
and The Guardian have all
spotlighted the work of the
26-year-old, whose Kibera
Stories photo collection has
been shown in Paris, Lisbon,
Kampala and New York City.Since 2016 the documentarian, who
goes by the moniker Storitellah, has
used his skills behind the lens to show a
vibrant society that has grown in spite of
scarcity. “You find that so many people
come to Kibera, and they always have in
mind that they’re coming to a poor
place, so they are going to take ‘poor’
images; they are going to take photos of
people suffering,” Otieno says. “And,
yeah, I know that’s happening, but that’s
only part of the story.”
Since the introduc-
tion of free public Wi-Fi in
the East African country
around 2015, Kibera’s nar-
rative has slowly started
to shift. Kenyan public-
policy expert Naomi Rono
explains that the presence
of social media, stemming
from access to mobile
technology and the In-
ternet, has enhanced the
universal interest in the
shantytown. Simultane-
ously, it has expanded the
locals’ appreciation for
what style actually is.
Prior to the digital pen-
etration of the area, Rono asserts, the
stitching of clothes was not regarded as
fashion. Rather, it was simply a trade. But
perception has changed with the fusion
of cultures made possible by visual plat-
forms like Instagram. “It’s almost like it’s
transforming a very traditional trade that
our parents used to perform as a regu-
lar and mundane task to something that
is really getting attention and is even
attracting people to develop runway-
quality material,” the Washington, »A Nubian bride
surrounds
herself with
love at her par-
ents’ home in
Kibera.
BY TANYA A. CHRISTIANPeople come to
Kibera and
have in mind
that they’re
going to take
photos of
people suffer-
ing. But that’s
only part of
the story.”
—BRIAN OTIENO,
PHOTOJOURNALIST