The Or Foundation

“Najiha Yahaya has a wide smile, a creative impulse so strong that she taught herself to crochet without the help of a smartphone or YouTube, and the kind of courage that allows her to stand before powerful men and defy them to their faces. But if you had met her when she first arrived in Accra alone at 15 and began working as a head porter, or kayayo, carrying heavy bales of secondhand clothing on her head, you might not have seen any of that…” In her recent story for @atmos author Whitney Bauck @unwrinkling highlights the realities of the global fashion system where excess clothing becomes an unimaginable burden for women who head-carry bales of secondhand clothing in Kantamanto. She explores how our team is working alongside these women to implement immediate and long term solutions including our paid apprenticeship & scholarship program that has accompanied over 290 women out of dangerous head carrying. It’s a beautiful story that amplifies the essential voices of women like Najiha @dinnanioff and Huzeima @hassan.huzeima while demonstrating the power of solidarity through women like @drnaa_novawellness whose generosity created the foundation on which our Mabilgu Program is built. Please read the story in full at Atmos.earth Photos by @ericasamoahstudio featuring @kuoroearth and @dinnanioff

This fire upcycled piece by @__nakoi__ was made from textile waste, flipping discarded fabrics into wearable art. Every stitch is giving sustainability, creativity, and love for Kantamanto — one of the world’s biggest secondhand clothing markets right here in Ghana. I styled myself in this last night for @scentofafrica ‘s new fragrance launch courtesy @debonairafrik ✨ Find designer @__nakoi__ at @othershowroom Graphic Road( @theorispresent )

Welcome to May, our friends on the internet side. We started the month with a cleanup (Tuesday, 06 May), and another reminder of how much people are wiling to give when they show up for care for the community. In just over 90mins, 198 people (65 ICs and 133 volunteers) removed and cleared 30,429kg of textile waste and other forms of waste from the Jamestown coastline. Everyone moving, together, carrying, sorting, lifting, bagging, and stepping in where they were resourceful. It’s a lot of burden, but somehow people still show up fully — that’s ACCOUNTABILITY! And that part never leaves us. #BeachCleanup #OceanProtection #ClimateAction

From Kantamanto to Lagos Fashion Week, Woven Threads VII: CRAFTED, we showed not just a presentation, but a collective, shaped through material, process, and people. What begins in Kantamanto, where many second-hand garments and materials are discarded, continues in the hands of a growing community of designers and practitioners who rework them into identity, memory, labour, resistance, and possibility. From reclaimed textiles to weaving, dyeing, crocheting, and material experimentation, each practice offers a different way of engaging with what already exists, not as waste, but as a resource. At this year’s presentation, we brought together designers and makers working across upcycling, circular design, and craft, carrying their practices from the market, through our studio, and onto the Woven Threads stage, grounded in the daily labour, skill, and knowledge of the Kantamanto community and its network of craftsmen, tailors, and seamstresses, who continue to explore new ways of making through reclaimed materials. Nakoi - Rebecca Korkor Mensah @__nakoi__ , Daily Dosage - Emmanuel Tetteh @_dailydsg_ , Mabilgu (The Or Foundation) @mabilgu , Emie Atelier - Apladey Theresah Emefah @emie.atelier , Morhands - Rabi Kudomor @mor_hands , Damtse - Glady Damtse @damstewear , Humble - Harris Kharin Bennah, Martinson Klothing - Martinson Afari @martinsonklothing , Master Hanga - Samuel Gyasi @linsam.garment StreetNotSafe - Joshua Baah @streetnotsafe_ , KOMA ARC - Derrick Asare @koma_arc , Apprica’s Toggery - Erica Appiah Amankwah @apprica_toggery , A Bite of Memory - Glory Adom Unique @glory_adom_unique , House Of D Smith - Merilyn Smoth Dodzi Gladys @houseofdsmith , and Winneba Waivers - Project Justine @theprojectjustine This was a collective practice. A different way of making. A different way of seeing. A different way of valuing. Because textile transformation does not begin with the garment. It begins with people. Thank you @lagosfashionweekofficial , @stylehousefiles and @sunnydolat . #Kantamanto #CircularFashion #TheOrFoundation #LFW

At Woven Threads VII: CRAFTED, it was clear that Sustainability is not a trend, and it cannot exist in isolation. It lives across systems, in how we produce, consume, discard, source, remake, move, and value. Within this shared installation space, the works by NAKOI unfolded as garments of memory and becoming - pieces that draw on identity, womanhood, and heritage, shaped through reclaimed materials and careful hand processes. Alongside this, woven works developed in collaboration with the Winneba Weavers through Project Justine brought another layer of material knowledge into the space, grounding the exhibition in practices that have long understood care, continuity, and craft. Kantamanto and other African secondhand markets are not an abstract site of waste. They are a living system of people, labour, skills, talents, creativity and care - constantly working to extend the life of garments within a global system that was never designed to hold them. Presenting this work in Lagos, alongside designers and cultural practitioners rethinking material, process, and value, was to be part of a larger alignment. A shared insistence that fashion can move differently, and we already have the solutions we need. Not extractive. Not disposable. But rooted. Circular. Regenerative. And accountable to the people within it. Thank you to @lagosfashionweekofficial , @stylehousefiles and @sunnydolat for creating such a space for this work to be seen, engaged with, and held in conversation. And to our team, our Executive Co-founders and community, who were on the ground: Eugene Ewusi-Annan, Sammy Oteng, Liz Ricketts, Branson Skinner, Rebecca Naa-Koi and Emmanauel Tetteh, for carrying this work into the space with intention. Photos by Style House Files & Lagos Fashion Week #Kantamanto #CircularFashion #TheOrFoundation #LFW

Two stories. Two shades. One second life. Crafted from discarded textiles, reimagined into wearable art where muted greys meet washed blues in layered harmony. The darker tones explore depth, strength, and quiet elegance through layered shades of grey, while the lighter blues carry softness, calmness, and movement. Together, they reflect the beauty of contrast and the idea that even what is abandoned can be transformed into something timeless. At SYSO, every piece is more than clothing it is proof that sustainability and craftsmanship can exist in the same space beautifully.

We’re delighted to welcome @theorispresent to @mcrmuseumshop 💚 The Or Foundation epitomises style with purpose ✨. Based in Ghana, they strive to shift the fashion industry from the fast fashion cycle toward a more sustainable business model ♻️. They champion and support local artisans who create upcycled clothing and accessories, made from the estimated 15 million secondhand garments that arrive in Kantamanto Market in Ghana every week from the global north. Complementing the Human Natures exhibition @mcrmuseum , this collection of vibrant tote bags has a nod to the Kantamanto Market on the outside, and the inside of each bag is just as interesting, as you will find the collars, pockets and other features of the discarded shirts that they are made from 🙌. This collection, that is truly unique and the antithesis to throwaway fashion, is available in our Museum shop. #ManchesterMuseumShop #museumshop #museumexclusives #exhibitiongifts #exhibitionexclusives #exhibitionproducts #ManchesterMuseumExhibitions

Last Saturday, 25th April was different! Sis Deborah brought her energy and brought all her people. And everything met in one place: the work, the energy, the food, the music, the people, and all the moments at Kinshasha Beach, Jamestown. We were originally meant to start at 2pm exactly but the tide didn’t agree. Still, the ICs of Tide Turners stepped into the sea water. Pulling all kinds of waste from the sea, bringing it back to shore, passing it on so it could be collected, sorted, bagged and carried up to the truck upstairs. That kind of coordination…you don’t plan it perfectly. You feel and act upon it, immediately. And it carried us through the entire day. From the cleanup, to the coconut refreshment and to the scrumptious Ga kenkey meal, to setting up the stage, to the live band later, everything held together because our community showed up, stayed through and cared enough to be present fully. And in just over 2 hours with 315 people on ground, we removed 31,349kg of textile and other kinds of waste from the beach shore. But honestly, it’s wasn’t even just about the numbers. It was the physical efforts, the strength and the way everyone moved together. That’s what made the day what it was. Thank you to @sisterdeborah (@wanlov , @pappykojo and @yeboyah ) for standing with our work, for showing up, for using your voice and medium to amplify what truly matters for the future of our environment and water bodies, and all the team at @theorispresent for working tirelessly to bring people close to it and pulling this off. And for everyone who came through, we felt your presence and efforts, thank you so much for being part of this cleanup. We move; unto the next. #BeachCleanup #OceanProtection #ClimateAction

For the third year in a row, we returned to The Street Academy to mark Earth Month alongside Naa Korle and our proud Planeteers. This time, with the support of Tide Turners, we went deeper - introducing and honoring her mother, Nshɔɔrna, the great ocean, and reflecting on the many ways we are called to care for her. In communities like these, on the frontlines of a global textile waste crisis they did not create - the urgency is not abstract as the skate is very clear. It is lived, daily. Here, “Our Power, Our Planet” is more than just a theme. It is a reminder that transformation is a collective effort and real change happens through community choices each one of us have to make. Happy Earth Month!

Unmatched Tide Turners energy! #BeachCleanup #OceanProtection #ClimateAction

But regardless, we’ve started. And here we go again with Sister Deborah!