BUZIGAHILL

ABOUT THE COLLECTION

With its eleventh “Return to Sender” collection, Buzigahill continues its powerful and politically charged mission: the Kampala, Uganda-based label creates new fashion pieces from secondhand clothing that has made its way to Uganda from Europe, the USA, and Asia — and symbolically, as well as literally, sends them back to the Global North. The fashion label and its “RTS” collections are a direct response to the impact of used clothing exports on the country’s textile industry. Designer Bobby Kolade carefully selects each garment from the Owino Market in Kampala. Every piece receives an individual passport that documents its origin, material composition, production period, and identity number. This season was strongly characterized by a fusion of sportswear and classic garments, transformed into entirely new silhouettes: chinos with elastic track-hem cuffs, jeans with athletic waistbands. Biodegradable materials, shaped from cassava starch and gelatin, meet hand-knotted chain dresses made from fringes of old T-shirts. Embroidered slogans like “TRY JESUS,” inspired by Kampala’s minibus culture, are combined with traditional embroidery from the Milaya Project in South Sudan – a collective of South Sudanese women in the Bidi Bidi refugee camp who embellish textiles with traditional needlework. 

All images are available at the official Berlin Fashion Week MEDIA HUB.

ABOUT THE BRAND

In a defiant act called RETURN TO SENDER, Kampala-based BUZIGAHILL redesigns second-hand clothes from Europe, North America and Asia, and redistributes them to their origins in the Global North.