Clothing

Rwanda has decided to greatly reduce the import of used clothing. President Paul Kagame said: "We have to decide whether we want to remain the recipient of used clothing or whether we want to build up our own textile industry."

Entrepreneurs in Rwanda feel motivated by this decision to further expand their business in order to offer an alternative to second-hand clothing. This also applies to Nathalie and Lauren.

Starting out without their own business address and without employees, they now have a beautiful store with a tailor shop in operation. Currently, the company has built up a strong network of middle-income customers who used to buy second-hand clothes regularly. Today, customers appreciate the clothes they produce and their combination of traditional style coupled with a sense of modernity. Their company is known as the "batik innovators" as they combine batik with other simple materials/fabrics in their designs.

Nathalie and Lauren's vision is to establish a leading fashion company for customized and well-designed fabrics in Rwanda. In addition to producing batik fabrics as a long-term plan, they also aim to become a source of employment.