Tanzi Handmade: Telling a Kitenge Story
Jane is the founder and designer of Tanzi Handmade.
Jane really loves culture, African culture to be precise. As of March 2021 Jane decided that she wants to tell a Kitenge story, she decided that she wants to show people worldwide how creative you can get with an African fabric. She has done magic with vitenge making clothes, bags and other accessories; you cannot deny the beauty of her pieces with all the colours and wonderful designs. Kiafrika asked Jane what drove her to take this business route her response was simple “It’s unique, colourful and it illustrates creativity in an African way”.
It’s unique, colourful and it illustrates creativity in an African way.
Jane has her mum as her business partner whom has been the biggest supporter in this business and also a genius behind those threads at Tanzi handmade. Her mum does the sewing while she designs and picks the vitenge fabrics as she has got an eye for colours.
The inspiration behind her designs is people, she thinks of how comfortable someone would be in her designs and that is exactly how she would design her dresses. Over a year now with the help of her mum and sister who does her finances, she has learned a few lessons and faced a couple of challenges but those didn’t break her.
With customers from in and outside Tanzania via Kiafrika Online Market, now Jane knows her foreign customers love accessories while her people at home prefer clothes.
Her Entrepreneurship:
The easiest part about being an entrepreneur is you get to do things your way because you are the boss and you have control over things, but then there’s the part where you need to work extremely hard to succeed.
The biggest lesson Jane had to take is Discipline, from sticking to the plans to finances. Jane has been taking sewing classes from her mum as she wants to expand her business.