Image credit: Joshua Jordan
In this week’s episode of Wardrobe Crisis, Vogue Australia’s Sustainability Editor-at-Large Clare Press speaks to design duo Rosario Dawson and Abrima Erwiah, co-founders of Studio One Eighty Nine – an artisan-produced fashion lifestyle brand and social enterprise, made in Africa and producing African and African-inspired content and clothing.
You no doubt know activist and actress Rosario Dawson for her film work – she was discovered aged 15 sitting on her New York stoop by Harmony Korine, who cast her in his cult hit, Kids. Since then she’s been in major movies from Sin City to Men in Black to Rent. She’s also an activist. In 2004 she co-founded Voto Latino to encourage young Hispanic and Latino voters to become more politically involved, and she sits on the board of Eve Ensler’s V-Day’s One Billion Rising.
Rosario has known Abrima Erwiah since childhood, when they were introduced through mutual friends, and the two women have supported each other’s endeavours ever since. Abrima studied business and her career background is in luxury – she used work for Bottega Veneta. A trip with Rosario to Ensler’s City of Joy in the Congo cemented her decision to work in social enterprise.
That decision led to the duo founding fashion lifestyle brand and social enterprise Studio One Eighty Nine in 2014, working with artisanal communities that specialise in various traditional craftsmanship techniques including natural plant-based dye indigo, hand-batik, kente weaving and more. Based between New York and Ghana, the focus of the business is on empowerment, creating jobs and supporting education and skills training.
This week’s episode of Wardrobe Crisis podcast is a lesson in how to start a social enterprise with a friend that shares the same values. It’s also a story about female friendship.
Listen to the episode in full here and see some of the many highlights of the conversation below: