London based designer Sheila Boateng has had huge successes both in the UK and Ghana with her unique and diverse clothing range. Ghanacelebrities catches up with her to find out how it all started. If you don’t know about Nkya designs, then get to know.
GhanaCelebrities.Com: Your designs are fresh and unique, you merge West African fabrics with Western coutures which has proved to be a success, tell me what made you want to start this vibrant and sassy clothing line?
N’kya started off as S.B.O.G(Sheila Boateng of Ghana) where I personalised t-shirts with traditional cloth for friends and I mainly for nights out. People took a great liking to this concept and I started receiving orders from all over the place. I then decided to take it to the next level and make clothes for people to wear that would connect them to their roots whiles maintaining the Western flair. Clothes that would make the confident woman feel Sexy, Sassy and Stylish!
GhanaCelebrities.Com: You started in 2007 and you have been involved in so many projects, recently you were at the Fusion
Expo, how do you think Nkya as company have grown over the years? What has made you stand out from the rest all these years?
N’kya has grown a lot over the years and this is distinct through the collections we have been producing. We started off mainly attracting the younger generation who love to go out and want that added touch, hence the first couple of collections were very party season oriented. We have added other sectors to our design initiative and this is evident in our new collections which will appeal very much to the confident woman who is young( or young at heart) and is not afraid to experiment with colour and style. What makes us stand out is we just go with the flow and do what we think is right and not what current trends suggest.
GhanaCelebrities.Com: Your off to Ghana to promote your new clutch bag…In your own words could you tell us what your trip is about?
I am very excited about this trip as it will be a much needed holiday for me :
Aside from that I will be working with Emmanuel of Bob Pixel Photography on a shoot for our new clutch bag collection titled ‘Wiki’ and our maxi dress collection for the Spring/Summer season.
GhanaCelebrities.Com: What can we expect from Nkya Designs in the next few years, any planned projects or collections?
We are working on a project for this summer which will aim to unite a few designers from Ghana and abroad. We have confirmations from the designers and currently working on sponsors etc… It will be an absolutely fantastic show and I can’t wait to give more details on it soon. The only thing I can say for now is the name of the show, ‘ALLA MODA’ which means being in fashion and we are looking for everyone to do it the African way.
We are also working on a fab capsule collection for The Ethnic Fashion show scheduled in end of April in London.
Lots and lots to come
GhanaCelebrities.Com: I have been meaning to ask you this, how did you come up with the name Nkya? Its so different
This story always puts a smile on my face. I decided to change the name SBOG as it was mimicking other designers like MKOGH and PKOG and I wanted to be told apart. The idea of N’kya came from my cousin Felicia whiles we were at a conference bored stiff and trying to cheer ourselves up. Its from the twi word ‘nkyia’ (greetings) and we decided to change the pronounciation to ‘nekaya’ to make it sound exotic and different all the while with its ghanaian roots. This brought about the slogan I love so much. ‘N’kya! A Sense of Africa…A touch of you!’
For more info about Nkya Designs and orders, visit
www.nkyadesigns.com or you can add them on facebook
Interviewed By Rickie Davies On behalf On GhanaCelebrities.Com
lovely
I’m ghanaian, and i was wondering if you guys ship your products to america? cuz they look really nice and i want one.