Process | Sandi Owusu-Yaw of Diva Delicious Makes Batik

Diva Delicious is a Ghanaian fashion brand that is about 70% sustainable. Founded by Sandi Owusu-Yaw 12 years ago, She studied nursing where she started to make bags as a student, these were created by widowed women in Bolgatanga, Ghana. She also worked styling TV adverts. This led to the launch of ready to wear line Diva Delicious.

It is founded for the girl who lives next door, who knows what she wants and is the boss of her own life. The range is whimsical and elegant with a playful, flirty aesthetic. This sustainable line makes sure its packaging, fabric and dyes are sustainable and uses dyes that are 50% all natural. To keep its carbon footprint small, Owusu-Yaw has commited to making sure that the fabric sourcing, designing and production is all done in Ghana.

Although the brand does not follow the traditional schedule of fashion weeks they have been featured on the Vogue Italia site, their brand has staples that there is a demand for. It should be noted that each collection is limited edition with only 15 pieces of the design made per dress size.

The fabric could be Batik as you see them produce in the below videos or some other print but whatever the case may be, none of the fabric goes to waste. Any left over fabric is given to tailors to repurpose and anything left over gets given to a man who uses the fabric pieces as fillers for pillows. Dyes get reused to create new colors.

An ethical brand that pays workers a fair wage, long term contracts, time off and making sure their environment is fit and safe to be working in. Owusu-Yaw says shes always found the artisans through word of the mouth. Five years ago she had the epiphany of having a painter paint on a t-shirt and it began a line called ‘For arts sake’ which goes hand in hand with her ready to wear designs.

Her commitment to being as sustainable as possible is a breath of fresh air.

In terms of the future, she wants to be 100% sustainable, have a stronger online presence and have her designs in places like Nordstrom and Harrods.

Creating in some parts of Africa can be challenging due to logistics and production. Despite this, we see that Owusu-Yaw has joyfully created a brand that not only has received a nod of approval from Vogue but it is her genuine passion to be as sustainable and as ethical as possible.

Below that joy is seen as she works with artisans to create Batik, a print fabric made using stencils and stamps that dipped into wax then stamped on the fabric, the fabric is then dyed but the stenciled patterns on it are resistent to the dye due to the wax barrier. It is encouraging seeing Owusu-Yaw create some Batik printed pieces in the below videos, text and imagery. Enjoy the narrative of the Batik making process. Follow her site here and her instagram here.

Here I am infront of the wax stamp stencils to create Batik fabric which is a type of fabric that has prints created by the wax resistant method when dyed after applying wax stencils.

Dyeing my second color above

Different prints and designs.

Dancing while my second print dries.

Making sure all the wax comes out.

The dewaxing proces: put fabric in boiling hot water to allow wax from printing to melt out.

Dipping the whole piece and toss.