Adriana Juma, a graduate of Shanghai University in China is the owner of Tiankara Creations, dealing in manufacturing of African clothing.
The fashion house makes African-themed dresses, shirts, tops, pants and jackets for both kids, men and women.
The 30-year-old is not new to the industry as her mother used to own a tailor shop which she inherited from Juma’s grandmother.
Here is her story as narrated by WoK.
Juma grew up amidst experienced tailors.
Her grandmother was a tailor and so was her mother who, in fact, inherited Juma’s grandmother’s tailor shop in Nakuru town.
However, for Juma, she wanted to come up with something extra from the ordinary designs made by tailors.
She schooled in Nakuru all her life until when she won a scholarship to study International Trade and Economics at Shanghai University in China.
“I was schooling and at the same time working. I did a lot of sourcing and teaching English, and with that, I enjoyed earning my own money. At the end of four years I decided that I don’t want to get employed,” she said.
Although her parents wanted her to get employed, she was passionate about setting up a business and creating job opportunities.
Upon her return to Kenya, Juma joined her mother at the tailor shop and she would sew clothes from discarded fabric in a hid to sharpen her skills.
Together with a friend, she started the Daraja project in 2018 and they would teach street mothers how to stitch.
“I’m happy the program is working which has helped 360 street mothers and children to support their families as we subcontract them to supply some of the designs we have,” Juma said in an interview with Standard.
In August 2020, she approached her grandmother and mother and proposed that they make ready attire rather than the clients walking in with their own fabrics.
The idea birthed Tiankara Creation.
Juma invested Ksh 10,000 into the business, money that she was offered by her mother to buy fabrics for her designs.
“It was difficult and we had no operators. I have five friends, we call ourselves ‘think tank’ and we kept on even as neighbors would laugh at us and discourage us that it was a tall order given that Kenyans don’t value Kitenges,” she said.
Months into the business, Juma and her team of 30 employees would sell over 50 pieces a day.
Challenges that she has to deal with in her business include sourcing of fabrics, sizing and workmanship as most of the employees were not trained.
“We are wondering why the government is not recognizing us, we pay our revenue up to the last coin, we hope in the future we will be able to work with the government in encouraging buy Kenya, build Kenya,” she pointed out.
Juma markets her products through different platforms such as social media, fieldwork and trade shows.
