About Us
Swahili Express
Swahili Express is a start-up fashion brand based between Tanzania in East Africa and Prague in the Czech Republic. We create custom-made clothes from beautiful African fabrics. We enrich the wardrobes of our European customers, bringing bright colours and the wildest patterns into their lives. We offer well-paid work to great tailors in Tanzania, contributing to a better life for their families. We reject fast fashion with all its devastating impacts on the environment and communities in non-European countries. You will have to wait for your clothes, but you will get a unique piece that you will not see on anyone else. By purchasing it, you will give joy to yourself and to the people on the other side of the world who create clothes for you with love.
Martin Skalský,
Founder
“When I first arrived in sub-Saharan Africa in 2011, one of the things that fascinated me was the colours. Just as Africans are not shy about expressing their emotions, they have no qualms about dressing in vibrant colours and the wildest patterns. Along with elaborate braided hairstyles, colourful and meticulously maintained clothing creates beauty on the streets of African cities and at rural celebrations. Having a dress or shirt made by a tailor is as common in Africa as buying ready-made clothes from fast-fashion chains in Europe. The difference is that in Africa, clothes are purchased thoughtfully and then worn for a very long time before being thrown away. And you will hardly meet two people who have shirts made from the same fabric. If clothes make the man, as they say, then the colour of the clothes sets the mood, and if the colours are appropriately crazy, they undoubtedly bring their share of life joy.“
Our Fabrics
We spend long hours in the winding streets of the markets in Dar es Salaam and Tanga on the East African coast, searching for the most beautiful and bold fabrics to create clothes for you. We sew from kitenge, cotton printed with African patterns, or from hand-batik cotton fabrics. Designs are produced in small numbers and rotate quickly in the markets. All our clothing is therefore created in limited editions – there are only a few pieces of the same pattern.
Although we source all our fabrics in Tanzania, it is a mix of locally produced fabrics and materials imported from other parts of Africa and the world.