A ka so » Women

Akaso is a co-creation label and the brainchild of Philippe Vertriest, father of two Ethiopian born daughters and great believer in Africa’s creative talent.  From the encounter with a book on African body painting art, he developed the Akaso collaborative design concept, uniting the Kara tribe in Ethiopia with the resident Belgian Akaso designers.

The Kara people in Ethiopia are one of Africa’s most authentic tribal people and reknown for their abstract body painting art : a fascinating act of transformation, using the skin as a canvas and the earth as a palette.

From co-creation workshops between six young Kara body painting artists – men and women – and two Belgian designers rises the Akaso collection fusing one of Africa’s oldest art forms with an urban contemporary spirit.

Akaso comes from the Italian ‘a caso’ meaning ‘by coincidence’, reflecting the many coincidences that Philippe encountered on his route that brought him to the Akaso co-creation vision.  ‘There is no coincidence in this life – just follow your intuition, however bold the path may be’.