Nairobi's Alt Creative Beauty Through Thomas Seward's Lens: Escape.pln

As my three week stay in Nairobi approached its timely end, there was one more prospect left unexplored. Subsequently, I did not hesitate to contact Amari, the creative director of one of Nairobi’s most prevalent fashion installations, as it currently stands, to express my interest in developing an editorial in tandem with WhoWhatWhere.

Calling it an installation may be perceived as a stretch in this case, as its image often exceeds, if not completely exits, such contextualisation. This is one of the major findings I resolved throughout my explorations across the cultural scene in Nairobi. You come across a myriad of brands marketing and selling apparel that, more or less, challenges prescribed formulae, each with their own aesthetic and approach to referencing various cultural and social themes through their respective works. And that’s a good thing, because, if they just as much as settled, there would be little to no progress in advancing such themes, and their brands, as a whole.

This is where Escape Plan, sometimes stylized as Escape.Pln, comes in. They do not settle. I took this principle to heart, and set out to work out the process of visually translating it in what turned out to, arguably, be my best body of work to date.

Escape Plan, led by Amari Möto, a Kenyan-British creative, does not rely on the conventional framing of a typical fashion installation. In fact, I reiterate that I should cease from describing it as such. With bases in Nairobi and London, they strive to dip their toes in everything, from documenting subcultures inherently unique to these global centres, all the way to garment design and creation, as well as archival and visual research.

The challenge presented itself: how could I string this together with my ambition to develop a story that would not only resonate with Amari’s collective enterprise, but with Nairobi at large, while building a bridge between the two capitals, if I can widen the scope a little bit more? I have learnt over time that a place does not only consist of geographical and cultural elements unique to the area. Cross-cultural influence plays a significant role in it achieving its unique fabric, stitched over an extensive period, and I felt that due to my current personal disposition as an artist torn between two worlds, this would be the best opportunity to illustrate the effect of such influence and the changes it has made to the way I work and how I see the world. As a result, I covered some garments worn by two subjects at the Kuona Arts Collective — yet another environment that promotes creative diversity, situated between the invisible boundary of Kilimani, a relatively middle class suburb, and Westlands, a more cosmopolitan development — altogether with a more culturally accurate take on the Nairobi identity, stripped down to its core elements.