Tuesday 18th of February 2025

Nairobi, Kenya

The best luxury menswear brands in Kenya

Posted On : July 12, 2019

Paul Oloo

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I’m a huge fan of luxury. I suppose to some extent, we all are. I’ve never met an individual who did not appreciate beauty and craftsmanship in one field or the other. It may be electronics, it may be fashion.  As men, we work very hard so that one day we may be able to afford the finer things in life. This is a list on those finer things, crafted for affluent Kenyan men. Please note, this is not necessarily an endorsement of these brands, but rather an appreciation of Kenyan craftsmanship and the progress it seems to be making. It’s a phenomenon that happens in every industry. If you are as old as I am, then you remember a point in time when ninety percent of Kenyan music was absolute crap. Then stars like Sauti Sol and Nyashinski came in and raised the bar for everyone involved. Kenyan luxury fashion is a bit like that. For centuries the value of Kenyan craftsmanship has been dismissed. Here are a few luxury fashion menswear brands in Kenya that are looking to buck that trend;

 

King Sidney

I love how well King Sidney do their thing. Everything from their website to the actual jackets exudes beauty. Their jackets seem to take on a life of their own. This is one of those things you have to see first-hand to fully appreciate. The standard they have set for luxury fashion start-ups for men in terms of beauty and quality is truly something to marvel at.

 

John Kaveke

If I was to list all of John Kaveke’s accomplishments in this post, you’d be scrolling down this page for the next hour. The man is accomplished. Being the first Kenyan designer to attend the London fashion week is just one of his many accomplishments. He began by doing both but nowadays seems to be focused on menswear. A collection of some of his fine African-blended men’s evening wear can be seen on his Instagram page.

 

Kobe Afrika

I’m a big fan of sunglasses and designer eyewear. To be honest, when I was much younger, I used to be one of those guys who would wear sunglasses at night to the club. Sad, I know. You live and you learn. Recently I came across a Kenyan luxury firm that specializes in sunglasses and designer eyewear known as Kobe Afrika. And me being a fan of the international ray bans brand couldn’t help but fall for their sunglasses. I particularly like the wooden arms. They stand out in a sea of plastic arms and serve as nice conversation starters. Just like with King Sidney, they may still have some distance to cover in terms of variety of stock. But just like with King Sidney, I love the foundation, and can’t wait to see what they do next.

 

Sao sartorial

He’s the gentleman who dresses Sauti Sol. I’m a big fan of statement jackets, and the ones he custom makes grew on me after some time. Inasmuch as he seems to focus more on weddings, they do custom make individual evening tuxedos as far as I know. His Instagram page states that he has a dedication to sartorial excellence, and honestly I couldn’t agree more.

 

Jokajok

Former ‘unbwogable’ mega-producer Tedd Josiah took his skills and transferred them to luxury bag production. Even though they do both men’s and women’s luxury leather goods, I have included them in this list because of their unique approach to men’s leather goods. I saw an animal textured leather laptop bag on their website that I couldn’t get enough of. He has one or two interesting duffel bags as well.

 

Patrick Mavros

Located in the village market, and known as ‘The Luxury house from Africa’, their cufflink game is on a whole other level. Just like with one or two others on this list, they do not specialize in men exclusively. They are, however, the most successful brand on this list with four stores in four different countries. Their website boasts unique gems such as the 18-carat gold turtle cufflinks that retail at 3,500 pounds.

 

KOY Clothing

You may have stumbled across a viral WhatsApp video of a European gentleman describing what he referred to as “The Luo jacket”. That was KOY clothing, a brand that sells luxury jackets and then as their website states “give 5% of every purchase to projects within the communities of Kenya that our products are inspired by”. Although technically not in Kenya, they are inspired by Kenya and very patriotic about our country so I just had to include them here.

 

 

True luxury is rare, exclusive and very difficult to find. I will continue my search for luxury Kenyan menswear brands and continuously update this list. Do you know of any high-quality Kenyan luxury menswear brands that I may have missed? Comment below and I’ll be sure to check them out and update.

 

Paul Oloo

Paul Oloo

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