"Rwandan brand, House of Tayo draws from innate African sophistication and local craftsmanship to create a line of clothing and accessories with contemporary appeal. Here, the brand’s founder and creative director Matthew 'Tayo' Rugamba discusses how telling African stories through his designs helps him create collections with cultural significance."

"When he started House of Tayo, Rugamba had not a shred of experience in fashion or design, and only had a few bow ties lying around. What he did have was a blog post on Tumblr he posted in early 2012 about African fashion, which spoke about the way bow ties were going to be his way of telling the story of an Africa that is sophisticated and dignified."

"While Rwandan designer Matthew Rugamba doesn't believe African textiles should be limited to African designers and brands, it does irritate him, he said, when designers draw inspiration from different African cultures, using African textiles and then employing phrases like "tribal" to describe them. "Some of the patterns and colors have great significance in different African cultures, so it is condescending to reduce some of these designs to a single phrase," he told HuffPost."

Entrepreneurship, creativity, awesome design…these are a few of our favorite things and just a few of the reasons why we love House of Tayo! Founded in 2011 by Rwandan entrepreneur Matthew Rugamba, House of Tayo is a locally-made clothing and accessories line with a mission to showcase African sophistication and style. We partnered with them to create a collection of Dutch wax fabric bowties featuring the brand’s iconic bold colors, vibrant patterns, and distinctive Rwandan flair!

House of Tayo hosted Bold Africa's first pop-up shop in Kigali. 

"I think I may have a slightly bigger passion for story-telling than fashion. I remember making my first trip to the tailors when I was about 8 years old. I went to have an outfit made for my family wedding. I found the whole process fascinating. After many trips to various tailors over the years I grew more and more in love with the process...."

'Death Then, Life Now': Intimate Images Capture the New Rwanda A new exhibition opens Friday in London, showcasing insightful snapshots of daily life in today’s Rwanda as seen through the eyes of local photographers. Called “Rwanda in Photographs: Death Then, Life Now,” the show aims to “communicate the complexities of survival after mass violence,” organizers say, while helping international audiences to “understand the scale and scope of the country’s journey.” It is an honor to be part of Andrew Esiebo’s series, ‘Returnees’. Picture taken at, and with the collaboration of Illume Creative Studio