Piece by: ZENNA ISSA

26 October 2023

• He has designed several clothes for various celebrities like Chronixx, Alaine, Bruno Mars, Romain Virgo, Jah Cure, Konshens Christopher Martin and Ty Dolla Sign.

• David Avido is a fashion designer with extensive experience in tailoring, fashion styling, pattern making, teaching and business consultancy.

LooksLike Akido, CEO and Founder David Ochieng aka Avido who hails from Kibera slums is taking over the fashion industry by storm.

David has broken the walls of society and made a name for himself as his story is that of "from rags to riches'.

David was once a street boy in Kibera but through his undying efforts and will to have a better future and change people's perception of a street child he became one of the best fashion designers in the country.

He has designed several clothes for various celebrities like Chronixx, Alaine, Bruno Mars, Romain Virgo, Jah Cure, Konshens Christopher Martin and Ty Dolla Sign.

In an exclusive interview with Mpasho's Zenna Issa, David Avido shared the challenges and inspirations that got him to where he is at the moment.

The interview started with David stating the challenges he has faced in the fashion industry.

"In the fashion industry, there are many challenges, especially when it comes to making second-hand clothes they are different clothes from various designers so when you make your own creations it becomes a big problem where you are not able to serve them the way you want and people tend to compare prices with that. Other than that these other challenges help you to grow in different ways."

When he was asked why he made face masks for people during the COVID-19 period, he humbly said it was because he wanted to give back to the community and not because of any tenders.

"I made the face masks to inspire the community, my brand is people first and I normally put humankind first then other things follow because I believe human makes clothes but clothes don't make humans that was why I made the face masks. My childhood was very rough whereby we couldn't afford a meal when growing up so making face masks is because I put myself in a situation where if I was able to achieve what I achieved doesn't mean everyone I was raised with got to achieve so I made the face masks to boast other people and support them to take care of themselves."

We are told that the best things just happen and to David that was the case, he never wished to be a designer it just happened due to the circumstances.

"I never chose to be a designer, I was spending time with tailors so that they could take care of me in case any of my friends out there was caught in a crime I am not looked for or punished for their mistake because of mistaken identity whereby if I am your friend then you steal something and run away the police would come for me, torture me until I give them information about you. I stayed with the tailors because I didn't want to be caught in that type of situation and they helped me a couple of times cause 60% of my friends were killed, in such a situation of them being killed the tailors would stand up for me and say I wasn't into crime. The design thing just happened cause I spent time with them."

The fashion designer concluded the interview by stating the main reason he chose to empower disabled people more over physically abled people in society.

"I do empower everybody but the reason I focus on the disabled is that I see disabled ones as myself, I am not disabled but when I was growing up I didn't get a chance to go to school and most of these disabled people didn't get a chance to go to school because they were being shunned and looked on aside from that I also see my mum in that situation because she didn't get the chance to live the right way that's why I try and help the disabled people."