“I was introduced to African wax fabric through the dashiki, which when I was young you could buy at Sears and Bloomingdale’s,” she said, remembering her mom wearing them in the ‘70s. “It was seeing Cecily Tyson and Aretha Franklin in their beautiful caftans with their hair, and seeing those spreads in Ebony magazine.”
“My family, they weren’t wearing Ankara everyday like I wanted to; [they wore it] just for special events, birthday parties and weddings,” said Massaquoi, who grew up in Miami. “I wanted to create a brand where I could wear it every day and share the electricity and the vibrancy and joy with everybody.”“There are a lot of lines celebrating our cultural heritage through textiles, but I wanted to do it in a way that was easy and reserved and not too busy.
Nordstrom came calling. In February 2021, she started selling at two stores, then expanded to five and then 10 stores. In one year, Oula has more than doubled its seasonal order volume. Maisonette has reached out to collaborate on mommy-and-me pieces, and she’s working with her L.A. factory on printing on jersey, to bring her aesthetic to more sporty pieces. Massaquoi also wants to bring more storytelling to her brand, through social media and videos, and dreams of writing a coffee table book one day on how Ankara has traveled from the African diaspora into popular culture through the decades.