Books by hand

What do we do at mille collines when the power goes out?
make books by hand.

Very soon available in our stores.

The dyeing experience.

For our most recent runway collection we gave traditional kitengue fabric a new look by dyeing it dark muted colors. It was a successful endeavor, but as will all new collections, you then have the challenge of replicating these new ideas in order to get the product to stores.

This challenge led to a fun and tiring afternoon.

First step: organize and cut all the fabric to be dyed - no pot is big enough to hold all the fabric we needed to dye!

Step two: boil and stir. This left us all hot and thirsty, the fabric needs to boil for 20 minutes while you stir continuously, then lifting wet, steaming hot fabric out of the pots is no easy task.

Step Three: Get your buckets ready! Rinse rinse rinse until all the water runs clear. You need strong arms to twists out all the water.

Step Four: Hang the fabric to dry.

Final Step: Enjoy and big, cool glass of water, because you're finished!!

It was a successful day, and now we're ready to get the runway collection into stores!

mille collines men!

In many occasions, we have heard our friends say “you can never know when co founders of mille collines will be travelling out and when exactly they will be back”. Yes. It’s been 3 years of roller coaster work and schizophrenic rhythms. 

Co founder Marc had to move back to Spain for 3 months in September. There he would develop his final career thesis. We lost him in the field in Africa but we never lost him in the team. He decided to take his break as an opportunity to develop the menswear line. And that’s how we made our friends happy again. Not knowing exactly when Marc would be back but at least excited to hear that the so claimed line for males would finally be out there!

And that was the start of many months of online brainstorming and pinterest evening that would last forever. 

We have the privilege to work once again with Ines Monge, one of the most talented pattern makers in Spain, she has been collaborating with mille collines since 3 years now. She is part of the soul of this project and has shared the knowledge and professionalism of her team with us. Together with Marc they are creating the first prototypes of the collection that will then be shared with our team in Rwanda. They will be trained on how to create a menswear product for the first time.

There’s more exciting news. Our first men store will be opening in early 2013! Watch out. 

a wish come true: Online store open!