Sunny Dolat World Reknown Designer From Kenya

Sunny Dolat is a fashion curator, cultural producer and creative director who works independently as well as in the Nest Collective, which he co founded in 2012. The Nest is a multidisciplinary Kenyan squad who use film, fashion, literature, visual arts, events and music to work in in the intersections between aesthetics and communities; blackness/Africanness, feminism and queer theory; as well as design and technology, specifically located in the Kenyan experience.

Sunny has designed interventions such as Stingo & Chico Leco to provoke dialogue on the improvement of the infrastructure and operations of the East African fashion industry, as well as to shift the narrative and expectation of Kenyan fashion beyond ankara, kikoy and kanga. He centres his practice in making unapologetic statements about the beauty and dignity of black skin through works such as When We Are/When We Are Not.

Another project he helmed, a fashion book titled “Not African Enough”, is a voyage into contemporary Kenyan fashion and exploration of wider issues regarding Africa’s place in global cultural debate and dialogues. In it, Sunny challenged narrow definitions of African design and showcased original, unencumbered thinking and practice in this challenging sphere.

Over the past 2 years, Sunny has been transitioning into more curatorial capacities, taking leadership in Salt of the Earth for the Kenyan Pavilion at the International Fashion Showcase at Somerset House, and Beyond Expectations at the Institut Suedois in Paris among others.

Most notably, in July 2019, he curated and performed In Their Finest Robes, The Children Shall Return, an expansive fashion installation and ritual staged on the shores of Sao Tome and Principe for the N’gola Biennale, featuring 56 looks, one form every country on the continent and one from the diaspora.

This article originally appeared on Design Indaba