As 2023 begins, we pause and take stock of the year gone. Here are some of the YEVU highlights in numbers, words and pictures. 🚨 WE MADE IT TO 10 YEARS! And 2022 marked our highest growth year to date, proving the long term financial viability of our social enterprise.🪡 YEVU retained 27 full time staff in fair and dignified jobs in Ghana, sewing over 8000 socially responsible garments that were sold worldwide. 👩🏽‍❤️‍👩🏿 Women...

We recently sat down with Maya to get to know her a bit better, and to congratulate her on all she's achieved. Maya is known for being incredibly hard working, punctual and for being a team player.

Live vicariously through our procurement team to immerse yourself in colour and meet our gorgeous vendors  

This year for International Women's Day, the ladies of YEVU decided to put themselves first, and take a little time out from business as usual to focus on their health and well-being. The women of YEVU HQ spent the day at the training centre in Accra with community and health professionals getting a comprehensive health screening and learning about how to best take care of themselves mentally and physically so they can stay well, feel...

Your business and support has meant a lot to us over 2020, and it’s had a tangible impact. Our team in Ghana has not only been able to continue to work in fair and dignified jobs, developing and teaching technical skills, but more people who need work have been employed and wages have been increased significantly. Our capacity and efficiency has improved so much that we’ve been able to expand on and improve our production...

African wax-prints are iconic in the fact that they imprint history in their designs, immortalising key events, stories and people amongst many other things. And so, with the rise of COVID-19, it is no surprise to see Ghana’s biggest textile printing company, Ghana Textile Printing (GTP) putting a positive spin on the pandemic with their own line of COVID-19 inspired prints. "[We] put a positive twist on a negative phenomenon" Stephen Badu, from GTP, told...

READ: Awesome Ghanaian Artefacts Ghana gains some serious international attention for being home to some phenomenal (and unusual) cultural artefacts, from its hand-painted knock off Hollywood posters, to being renowned for turning the business of death into something remarkable with the elaborate business of ‘Fantasy Coffins.’ We take a look at a few of these cultural artefacts that make Ghana great. Read the full piece here > LISTEN: Tony Allen A tribute to the pioneer...

Feat. Burna Boy, Joseph (Abs) Abbey Mensah, Skate Ghana, Dead White Man's Clothes and more...

We catch up with Abs the creative (and insanely stylish) genius behind the last two vibrant YEVU campaign shoots. With a distinctive image making aesthetic capturing bold and vibrant colours using nothing but a humble Iphone, he is quickly rising to become one of Accra's most intriguing creatives. We caught up with him briefly to talk about his work and some of the other projects he’s currently involved in. You shot the entire last two...

We're super proud to announce our partnership with The Cova Project. We are working together to provide sustainable menstrual hygiene solutions, flow cups, educational materials and knowledge around personal health and development to girls and women in our Accra communities who are experiencing disadvantage due to lack of financial resources and access to basic necessities. Over the International Women’s Day weekend, we hosted workshops for over 100 women from the YEVU community of Amasaman, Accra...

Introducing a very special collab between YEVU & Kenyan label, Prince + Pauper. We’re super stoked at our latest collaboration with Prince and Pauper, a Kenyan based label that specialises in making Sandals from overlooked and discarded materials. Utilising a strict no waste policy, each hand-made design is ethically produced utilising a combination of ‘high’ and ‘low’ materials. Each pair of sandals provides or creates jobs 10 Kenyans living in and around the Korogocho Slum, as...

DAT Films presents a short documentary about Ghanaian DJ and electronic music producer DJ Katapila.   Discovered by Awesome Tapes from Africa and launched into the international spotlight soon after, DJ Katapila’s sound is an insane bass-heavy hybrid of traditional hiplife from Ghana’s coast and Detroit techno. For the last 20 years, Katapila has been blasting his unique sounds all over Accra, from house parties to funerals, inspiring generations of Ghanaians to get up and...

Kwasi Ohene-Ayeh is an artist, curator and writer based in Kumasi, Ghana, but you would recognise him more as the unapologetically handsome star of some of YEVU’s past campaigns. Much more than just a pretty face, Kwasi is currently completing his Phd at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Ghana. He is the current grant holder of KfW Stiftung’s programme 'Curators in Residence: Curating Connections’ in collaboration with the DAAD artists-in-Berlin programme. He was...

  Wax prints are a textile like no other. They are able to hold colours other textiles cannot, and the designs themselves act as a cultural currency and history for the beholder. On top of their vibrancy, they are fabrics full of hidden messages.   Image left: Supreme's SS17 collection featuring a controversial a Barack Obama Wax print   There’s absolutely no feeling as satisfying as finding the ultimate wax-print. And in a market place like Makola,...

The vibrancy of Accra never rests. The city has a strange energy that sucks you in and spits you out, deprived of sleep for fear of missing out on its secrets. No day is ever the same in Accra, despite the strong identity of the city, its personality is moody and shifts from day to day. It is a dirty, frustrating city that can be all up in your face but elicit a cool calm...

We've been admiring the work of our Accra mates, Lensational, for a while now, so we thought we'd spread the good word. Lensational is a social enterprise that is committed to sharing women’s stories through the transformative power of photography and videography. 

From prints to minimalism, sustainably driven design to collabs with streetwear labels, Africa has it all. It’s a bubbling hotpot of creativity. Here is a pick of a few of our favourite brands.

We hung out with DJ Katapila last time we were in Accra, and boy is he a hoot! Alongside some documentary film makers (Tommy Thoms and Dara Gill), we followed him around for the better part of a week, capturing what it’s like for a DJ in Ghana’s capital, hustling to make a living, whilst slowly building a name for himself internationally through his ties to ATFA.

The Togo Bag’s name comes directly from just there, Togo. The bags are constructed from locally made, re-purposed sleeping mats. They are are cut, crafted and moulded together using coals and irons by local artisans.

Eddie Murphy wore it in Coming to America; Kendrick's backup dancers are adorned in it in his music videos; and members of congress were seen wearing it in protest at Trump's SOTU - Kente cloth is as beautiful as it is symbolic.