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Meet Kwame Adusei: The Ghanaian Designer Dressing Hollywood’s A-List

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Ghanaian fashion designer Kwame Adusei is steadily cementing his place on the global fashion map, dressing some of Hollywood’s biggest stars while redefining gender-fluid luxury with distinctly African roots.

Adusei’s rising profile was highlighted in a 2024 Vogue feature, which described him as “quickly becoming a staple in celebrity closets.” He has also been featured in other top news media in America.

His designs—celebrated for their bold tailoring, sensuality, and exploration of androgyneity—have been worn by international stars including Beyoncé, Kylie Jenner, Lori Harvey, Kali Uchis, Ciara, and Reneé Rapp.

Image Credit: @kwameaduseionline on Instagram

From Ghana to the Global Fashion Stage

Before gaining international attention, Adusei spent a decade building his craft in Ghana, where precision tailoring and construction formed the backbone of his work. That foundation, he says, shaped his ability to respond creatively under pressure.

“In Ghana, people bring two or three yards of fabric from the market and show you a picture of Beyoncé and say, ‘I want the same outfit,’” Adusei recalled in the Vogue interview. “You’d better not say you can’t make it.”

That demanding environment refined his technical skills and eye for detail, even leading him to collaborate closely with French ateliers, where he became fluent in French and deepened his understanding of couture-level craftsmanship.

A Cold Start in New York, a Creative Home in Los Angeles

Seeking new challenges, Adusei moved from Ghana to New York City, only to discover that winter was an unexpected test. “Moving straight from a tropical place to New York, you find out that the trench coat is not as warm as you think,” he joked.

He later relocated to Los Angeles, where his brand found a more natural fit. In just two years, Adusei has opened a storefront on Doheny Drive in West Hollywood, placing his label at the heart of one of the world’s most influential fashion and entertainment hubs.

Image Credit: @kwameaduseionline on Instagram

African Identity at the Core

Despite relocating abroad, Adusei made a conscious decision to place his African identity at the center of his brand. He chose to name the label after himself—a move he initially found daunting.

“It is very vulnerable,” he said. “If you have your name on something, you have to earn it.”

For Adusei, the decision reflects a desire to challenge global perceptions of African fashion.

“When I moved to LA, I realized that a lot of people didn’t have a reference when it comes to African fashion,” he noted, despite the continent’s rich design heritage.

Redefining Androgyny Through Tailoring

Adusei’s work is widely recognized for its exploration of gender-neutral fashion, though he is careful to distinguish his approach from conventional menswear-inspired designs. His philosophy centers on tailoring garments to flatter women’s bodies while drawing inspiration from masculine silhouettes.

“With most gender-neutral clothing, the cut is fundamentally for the male body,” he explained. “There’s a way to cut the same fabric so the female body looks way sexier, more protected, and very comfortable.”

This balance of form and function has become a signature of his brand.

Image Credit: @kwameaduseionline on Instagram

Inspired by Kente and West African Tradition

One of Adusei’s key inspirations comes from traditional West African wedding ceremonies, where families use the same Kente cloth but create unique designs through individual tailors.

“It’s the most beautiful ceremony because everybody looks very different, but it’s the same type of fabric,” he said.

While the African influence may not always be immediately visible, Adusei describes it as the “beating heart” of his fashion philosophy—informing his emphasis on individuality, craftsmanship, and cultural continuity.

Ghana on the Global Fashion Map

As Adusei’s designs continue to appear on red carpets and in high-profile editorial spreads, his journey underscores the growing global influence of Ghanaian creatives.

His success highlights how African designers are not only participating in global fashion, but actively reshaping it—on their own terms.

Festivals & Events

Breakfast, Business and Big Ideas: Inside One of Accra’s Must-Attend Professional Gatherings

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On a Saturday morning in Accra, conversations over breakfast will carry more than casual small talk. They will revolve around entrepreneurship, leadership, financing and the decisions that shape careers.

Winning in Your Corporate and Business World – 3.0, taking place on Saturday, July 25, at the Accra Marriott Hotel, offers a refreshing twist on the traditional business seminar by blending practical learning with meaningful networking in one of Ghana’s leading hospitality venues.

A Platform for Growth and Connection

Now in its third edition, the summit has become part of a growing culture of professional development events in Ghana, where entrepreneurs, executives and emerging business leaders regularly gather to exchange ideas and sharpen their skills.

This year’s theme, “Fearless Financing in Business,” reflects an issue that resonates across the country’s expanding business landscape. Access to capital, financial confidence and sustainable growth remain priorities for start-ups, small businesses and established companies alike.

Rather than focusing solely on theory, the event promises tested business strategies delivered by experienced professionals. Interactive sessions and opportunities for one-on-one engagement with resource persons are designed to leave participants with practical knowledge they can apply long after the event ends.

More Than a Business Seminar

Visitors can expect an atmosphere that balances professionalism with Ghanaian warmth. The breakfast networking session encourages conversations that often prove just as valuable as the formal presentations, creating opportunities to meet entrepreneurs, corporate executives and business owners from different industries.

For international visitors, the summit offers a window into Ghana’s dynamic business community. It showcases a country where innovation, entrepreneurship and collaboration are becoming defining features of economic life.

For locals, it provides a chance to expand professional networks while gaining insights that support career advancement and business growth.

The formal dress code adds to the occasion, creating an environment where participants arrive prepared to make lasting impressions while exchanging ideas over a carefully prepared breakfast.

An Experience Worth Adding to Your Accra Itinerary

Whether you are building your first business, climbing the corporate ladder or simply curious about Ghana’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, Winning in Your Corporate and Business World – 3.0 offers more than a morning of speeches.

It creates a space where knowledge meets opportunity, and where a single conversation could become the beginning of your next professional breakthrough.

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Arts and GH Heritage

Gideon Hanyame Turns Stains Into Symbols of Memory and Transformation

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At KNUST, an everyday water filter became a powerful symbol of work, memory, and the marks that shape human lives.

A clean white filter is designed to disappear. Hidden inside a water system, its success is measured by what it captures and what it keeps out of sight.

Yet Ghanaian artist Gideon Kobbla Hanyame asks a disarming question: what if the stains we try hardest to avoid are the very things that give an object—and perhaps a person—its meaning?

That quiet challenge sat at the centre of I call upon these persons here present to witness that…, an exhibition presented at the Sculpture Auditorium of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi. Rather than treating cleanliness as an untouched ideal, Hanyame explored purity as something earned through contact, labour and change.

His starting point was the humble string-wound water filter. Bright white when new, it gradually darkens as it removes impurities. Instead of viewing that transformation as deterioration, Hanyame turned it into a metaphor for the invisible work carried out every day—by people, communities and even cultures that absorb pressure while creating something life-giving for others.

Craft Traditions Meet Contemporary Thought

The exhibition drew deeply from Ghana’s material traditions. Dyed filter yarns, flour sacks, stitched textiles and handcrafted mirror frames merged into works that resisted simple labels. They shifted between sculpture, painting and woven installation, reflecting the artist’s belief that identity is never fixed.

Equally significant was the collaborative process. Local dyers and artisans became part of the creative journey, reinforcing the idea that contemporary art does not exist apart from community knowledge but grows through it.

Visitors were encouraged to wander freely rather than follow a prescribed route. Every path produced a different conversation with the works, mirroring the unpredictable ways people accumulate memories, experiences and scars throughout life.

A Different Definition of Purity

At a time when polished perfection dominates social media and consumer culture, Hanyame offers a striking alternative. His exhibition argues that transformation is rarely spotless. Growth leaves marks. Service demands sacrifice. Objects—and people—carry evidence of every encounter.

In Ghana, where handmade traditions continue to evolve alongside contemporary artistic practice, that message feels especially timely. The exhibition reminds audiences that heritage is not preserved by remaining untouched. It survives by adapting, absorbing and changing with each generation.

Perhaps that is the exhibition’s most enduring idea: the marks we often hide may be the clearest proof that we have lived, worked and become something new.

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Reels & Social Media Highlights

Ghana’s X-Rated Thursday: BBC Blasted, DJ KA Trends, and Viral Juju Tests Take Over

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 If you logged into Ghanaian social media on Thursday, July 21, 2026, you didn’t just scroll—you experienced a full-blown digital theater of justice, controversy, and sheer audacity.

It was a day where the online mood swung from righteous anger at international media to the morbid curiosity of celebrity gossip, proving once again that the Ghanaian internet is never boring.

The day’s heavyweight conversation centered on Chairman Wontumi, the Ashanti Regional NPP chairman sentenced to 20 years for illegal mining. While the ruling was a victory for anti-galamsey advocates, the real firestorm started when the BBC described the public’s reaction as “Shock and anger.” Ghanaians were having none of it.

The replies to the broadcaster’s post were a masterclass in pushback, with users like ValleyOftheKings clapping back: “No shock and no anger. It’s relief and happiness.”  The sentiment was clear: Ghanaians felt the BBC was tone-deaf to the local joy over a galamsey kingpin finally facing the music.

This trend also unearthed an old prophecy by spiritual leader Karma President, who had apparently foreseen Wontumi’s downfall months ago, adding a layer of spiritual intrigue to the political saga.

Just as that was simmering, the internet shifted gears with the alleged private video leak involving Kumasi-based radio personality DJ KA. While the video’s authenticity remained debated, it sparked a significant debate on privacy and digital ethics.

Veteran journalist Erastus Asare Donkor went viral himself with a plea for empathy, asking, “Before you share that video… would I have shared it if my sister or I was the one in the video?”  His appeal divided the public, with some questioning the DJ’s choices and others echoing the call for compassion.

And if that wasn’t enough content, we had the self-proclaimed “big boy” testing his anti-cutlass juju in a video that left many shaking their heads, alongside public calls for police action regarding young men flaunting guns and wads of cash.

From fighting foreign narratives to policing local privacy, Ghana’s social media today reflected a society deeply engaged in its own governance and culture, demanding accountability from politicians and media alike.

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