EvelyneAkinyi Odongo, a renowned fashion designer and prominent female entrepreneur in Kenya, has set her sights on expanding her fashion empire to Rwanda.

After participating in the 18th Rwanda International Trade Fair in Kigali earlier this month, Akinyi was inspired to launch her high-end fashion brand Akinyi Odongo Kenya in the country.

She says she would partner with local fashion designers to impact on the local fashion industry through workshops and training programmes.

"There is need for collaboration, and my coming here is not only about selling my designs, it’s also about what I am I bringing to Rwanda,” Akinyi told The New Times.

Rwanda’s fashion industry has significantly evolved over the past few years, with the establishment of several fashion houses and fashion events that often attract top designers from different countries.

Akinyi urged fellow designers in the region to get a niche and look for a market that identifies with their style: "The cake is so big. There’s something for everyone. You have to identify your target market instead of jumping on everything.”

Akinyi has inspired many trends and major fashion statements in her native country Kenya. She has designed outfits for some of Kenya’s high-profile personalities, including the First Lady Margaret Kenyatta.

The fashionista finds inspiration for her designs from her surroundings and what she reads.

She uses kitenge print or a touch of beads to embellish the outfits "to make it look practical” and considers longevity of the outfit. Her target market is the middle class and upper class, which she calls: "self actualised people because they know what they want.”

Akinyi was born and raised in Rangala, a village in the Siaya County in western Kenya. Born in a set-up where fashion wasn’t seen as a serious career, she credits her unstoppable passion for fashion to a keen sense of style. "I’m a village girl. And I do fashion to inspire and encourage other people that every dream is valid, it doesn’t matter where you are coming from.”

She learnt sewing from her mother, who was a home tailor and started out stitching together leftover pieces of cloth to make dolls. She had a stint in military training after high school, but dropped to join Evelyn School of design.

Akinyi registered her company Mefa Creations 10 years ago and has since watched it grow steadily. Every time she steps out of her house, she makes sure that she is wearing her designs, she said. The fashion designer reckons that she needed to believe in her brand before other people can and this has worked for her. 

Last year, she had an opportunity to design for Kenya’s First Lady Margaret Kenyatta. "For me, that’s an encouragement to work even harder. I’m looking to being a designer for very many First Ladies and Presidents in Africa and beyond – that’s my dream and it shall come to pass.”

Evelyne Akinyi Odongo likes to wear her apparels (S.Kalimba)