WOMAN OF PASSION: Life by design

Assumpta Kittony started off aspiring to be a lawyer, but an internship with a local designer altered her path, turning her into a fully-fledged designer, then social entrepreneur. She is the founder of the Sumi Kittony Fashion Brand. By Joan Thatiah

It is mid-morning on an overcast Tuesday when we meet 27-year-old Assumpta Kittony at a tailoring shop in Athi River, in the outskirts of Nairobi. Assumpta and the owner of the shop are absorbed in laying out Ankara (fabric), measuring and cutting.

 “I used to have a workshop of my own where tailors would come in and work for me on a salary. It wasn’t making much sense financially and I realised I wasn’t making much impact on their lives, so I decided to become a social entrepreneur,” she explains her business model a little later.

When they finish laying and cutting the fabric, Assumpta will visit one of the other eight tailors under her wing, who are also making outfits for her clients. She will also make time to meet her clients and take their measurements, and in the evening she will make more rounds collecting outfits that are ready from the tailors.

 “Each of the tailors I work with has a unique strength. When I get work from my clients, I assign on the basis of these strengths. I get to run a business with reduced operational costs while empowering people,” she explains.

Like many young girls born during her time, Assumpta aspired to be a lawyer. She went on to apply for a law degree even though she knew she loved art and loved working with her hands. She figured that once she had gotten into a ‘serious’ career she could always pursue art as a hobby.

“But during a school break from the University of Nairobi as a fresher, I got an internship at Kikoromeo and fell in love with design,” she says.

She promptly changed her course to design and began using the skills she had picked up to make her own clothes. Her first break came the second year when a pastor at her church, who had noticed that she always wore tailor-made clothes, invited her to showcase one of her designs at a church fashion show.

“After this, my confidence soared. By my fourth year, I had a little but steady source of income from clothes I made for my classmates,” she says.

When she graduated in 2011, she resolved not to look for a job and instead grow her business. After all, she had refined her skills and had a sizeable customer base. She had noted along the way that women bought more clothes than men, so she started off making affordable clothes for women. However, Assumpta was so absorbed in her trade, that she made some missteps.

She explains: “In my quest for customers, I found myself offering so much more than the client was paying for. For instance, I would hop onto cabs at 6am to make deliveries just because a client had asked, and I wasn’t putting some of these costs into account.”

She also wasn’t very keen on the bookkeeping.

All this changed when she was selected for the Mandela Washington Fellowship for young African leaders in 2015.

DESIRED CHANGES

Landing this opportunity had her family see her trade in a different light; a positive light. After the six-week training, she came back determined to change her focus from design to business. She also wanted her business to change lives, not just put clothes on people’s backs.

With nine tailors in four different locations in Athi River, one can say that her quest to change her business into a social enterprise has been successful. She helps her tailors hone their skills and buy more machines while remaining in firm control of their businesses. There are, however, still things that need changing. Like the attitude of the local consumer.

“Kenyans have a very negative perception of locally manufactured goods. Our love for imported goods, especially from China, is one of the biggest challenges in our business,” she says.

The mitumba (secondhand clothes) business is also a huge competitor. If the government abolished these, she reckons, the local textile and design industry would grow.

“The local trade could do with a little more support from the government,” she affirms, adding that her ultimate dream is to put out an affordable, ready-to-wear collection under her name.

ASSUMPTA’S WORDS OF WISDOM

1. Find that one thing that you would do for free. That’s your passion. If you find it, pursue it.

2. Everyone needs to believe in something. My faith is in God.

3. There are a lot of get-rich-quick schemes out there. Business isn’t like that. To make any money, you have to be patient and you have to keep at it.