Lalesso -The luxury African Summer Fashion & Lifestyle Brand

Lalesso was unofficially founded in 2006 by Olivia Kennaway and Alice Heusser as a university side project. The pair were studying fashion design in Cape Town and after a holiday to Olivia’s country of birth, Kenya they were inspired to make some skirts using a local East African textile known as a ‘khanga’ or ‘lesso’. The trademark Lalesso skirt design was received with great success and by the time they finished their studies at the end of 2006, they started to expand the womens wear range further into printed dresses, kaftans, swimwear and resort wear whilst retaining the use of the locally sourced printed khanga textiles as the trademark to the designs.

In 2007, Lalesso was officially incorporated in South Africa and Kenya and they cemented the core ethics of sustainability with the brand; a wholistic approach which considers both social responsibility and environmental impact. Lalesso is a carbon zero business, works only with ethically certified factories and involves the designs skills of African artisans in elements of their designs.

Later in 2007, Lalesso launched the women’s clothing range in the UK and was picked up by a number of leading high street retailers including Topshop and Anthropologie. After showing the resort wear at a number of trade shows in London and Paris, the stockist base extended to countries all over Europe, Japan, Africa ,the Middle East as well as a few in the USA.

Over the past ten years the resort wear brand has evolved and grown and is now firmly based in Cape Town, South Africa where they sell from locally via stockists and online as well as export. The brand moved into the more luxury Resort arena printing it’s own print designs on luxury natural textiles such as silk, cotton and linens.

Lalesso produces two women’s resort wear collections per year; a “Resort” collection and a “Spring Summer” collection. These collections include garments, swimwear and accessories. Each collection is defined by a print set, three unique prints per collection. The designs are summer-centrique and embody timeless and effortless silhouettes which are both distinct yet wearable. The ranges include; printed womens dresses, kaftans, kimonos, seperates and swimwear. The women’s resort wear brand produces ethically made swimwear and apparel for both wholesale and retail.