Pittsburgh-Born Fashion Designer Tereneh Mosley Launches Crowd-Sourcing Campaign to Fund Collaboration with Maasai Women of Kenya

Pittsburgh-born fashion designer Tereneh Mosley has launched a crowd-sourcing campaign to help fund a collaboration between her fashion company, Idia'Dega, and a group of women in Kenya's South Rift Valley to develop a sustainable contemporary clothing collection based on their original designs.

Tereneh Mosley (right) with
one of the women in the
Olorgesailie Maasai Women's Group

Funds raised during a new Indiegogo campaign will be used to buy sustainable and local fabric, beads and other materials, develop fashion samples and support a community of Maasai women in Olorgesailie, Kenya. Idia'Dega will develop collection product samples - two complete sample sets to present to fashion media and buyers in 2014. Mosley has set a goal of $9,000.

"The Olorgesailie Maasai Women’s group are talented artisans and craftswomen who lack only a reliable outlet for their products," Mosley writes in her Indiegogo page. "This collaboration with Idia’Dega...could prove to be the key link for these women to gain the economic foundation to achieve their goals. This is a collaboration of equals; we call it Creative Force not Labor Force."

In late 2013, Mosley met with the Olorgesailie Maasai Women (OMWA) and and designed a 10-piece collection of clothing and accessories for men and women.

"The Tomon (10 in Maasai) sustainable collection is based on the beautiful internationally-recognized Maasai design married with contemporary fashion silhouettes," the page says.

Investors in the campaign will receive a variety of perks depending on the amount of their contribution. Those who give $25 will receive a photo sticker of the Maasai community. Those who give $150 will receive a Maasai bridal necklace.

Mosley has taught at Parsons in New York, worked on a UNESCO design project in Kenya and as a U.S. Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar was sent to East Africa to do graduate research on incorporating indigenous adornment in contemporary clothing.

To view the Indiegogo campaign, go to http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/maasai-women-american-sustainable-design-collaboration.