Rugamba notes that in 2012, the year he started work on his line, Burberry, Louis Vuitton, and Vivienne Westwood debuted Africa-inspired designs. “Some people complain that they’re bastardizing our culture, but I think this is the window African designers needed,” he says. “While the world’s paying attention, put your best foot forward.”

 While the small classes allowed him to put up his hand, his accent made people look up from their laptops. If the subject of Africa arose, all heads turned toward him. Prior to Lewis & Clark, he’d always been surrounded by people from his country. In Oregon, he picked up a new role: Africa ambassador.

“People didn’t know much about the country I consider home, Rwanda—especially in terms of its everyday life,” he says. At one point, he considered claiming he was from Uganda instead of Rwanda due to its troubled history of genocide, but he reconsidered. “I had to stand up for where I’m from. I wanted to show people the amazing things coming out of Africa.”

This led Rugamba, always a dapper presence on campus, to a decision. He’d combine his eye for fashion with his desire to share the stories of Africa.

“It’s an equally enlightening experience for me and for those I share my stories with. I have learned many things about myself that had never really been apparent to me before,” says Rugamba. “I became particularly keen on sharing my appreciation for my culture and history through pictures, dance, cuisine, and anecdotes. But then I realized I had not touched on the clothes.”

We like to think that you can’t really accessorize too much. With a blend of popular culture and heritage through fabrics, House of Tayo presents a collection of men’s accessories destined for longevity purely on quality and aesthetics. House of Tayo is the product of Rwandan creative Matthew Rugamba. The collection of well designed and produced add-ons is a fantastic way of adding small doses of fab to spice up your wardrobe.

So that’s our list of African Designers who specialize in menswear for 2012. Let’s work together to make sure next year’s list is difficult- not because there are no potential candidates, but because there are so many we have to whittle it down to the best of the best. Africa is a continent filled with opportunities, resources, imagination and life. Best we dress up for the occasion.

"I would describe my style as classic. A year or two ago I was going through my albums looking for pictures that I was going to put up on my dorm room wall and it was an absolute cringefest. I winced at the pictures of me in my early teens wearing doorags, oversized T-shirts and huge “diamond” encrusted belt buckles with my initials."

 "I get inspiration from all over the place, from Markets, to blogs, to issues of GQ to gallery art but my primary source will always be history and culture. I have an obsession of late with the style of the Pan African movement of the late 1950s and 60s."