Sankofa
A gentle return: remembering, retrieving, rising… and meeting myself again with the readiness I didn’t have before.
This year has been a whole unwrapping. An offering. An incredibly messy but beautiful muddle of learning myself again and again. And honestly, I’ve been saying that since 2019. Every year it’s the same song: “I’m learning the new me.”
My first mistake was thinking this “new me” could be figured out in one retreat or maybe six months of deep work. No. She is a lifelong study. A forever evolution.
I always return to 2019 because that year opened something in me. I took a trip to Bali and on the very first day I got alcohol poisoning. I still don’t understand what “cane” is or why tropical places never have gin, and also why I keep choosing cane when it clearly does not choose me back.
We went to the beach in Kuta, took in the beach, had cocktails, and by evening I was convinced I might die in Bali. I spent the whole night sick, watching The Matrix of all things, and somewhere between the nausea and Neo with his red pill, blue pill, a shift began.
The next ten days were spent completely sober. I’m a weed girl but it’s illegal there, so I was fully sober. Meditating, chanting, swimming in the ocean, cleansing in temples, washing off things in waterfalls, doing yoga, hiking, resting, eating and shopping, all my favourite things.
One day we even did a tantra class in the forest. Looking back, that teacher was probably a scammer, but the whole wellness industry is full of characters trying to make their coin. Do you, boo.
When I came back home, I created a collection inspired by Bali. The Bali Backless Dress and Bali Set were born on that trip, and to this day they are some of our most requested pieces.
This year the requests came back strongly. At first I was like, you do know these are from 2019, right? I would custom make one or two until the demand grew so loud that I had to bring them back properly. So yes, the Bali Crop Top and Bali Pants have officially returned and are available in store and online.
This all brought me to the idea of Sankofa.
Sankofa is a word, yes, but I experience it like an African proverb.
“It is not taboo to go back and fetch what you forgot.”
The word itself translates to “to retrieve.”
In this season of unravelling and unbecoming, shedding and becoming, putting fashion down then picking it back up again, I’ve been revisiting the things I knew before. The things I loved before. Gifts I didn’t know were gifts when they first arrived in my hands.
Some things I was too young to value and scattered carelessly.
Some things were simply ahead of their time. Some, no matter how much I focused in, were met with shut doors, and either I didn’t have the capacity, or I was too quick in my youthful foolishness and ideas of how quick doing the work takes, to push through.
So I’ve been sitting with the idea that it is okay to go back.
It is okay to retrieve joy from old seasons.
It is okay to honour what once held magic.
It is okay to remember who you were before life piled on its noise.
The Spring shoot reminded me of this.
So did the model casting.
Watching designs from five, six, seven years ago come alive again, hearing what this brand means to you, how it makes you feel… something in me whispered,
“Again.”
“It’s time.”
“You are ready, and the world is ready too.”
As we step into December, I want to say two things.
First, we have a sale happening on selected pieces, so please go shop. I need to take my daughter to dance classes.
Second, thank you.
Thank you for loving this brand, for growing with it, for reminding me of the joy, the intention, the feeling behind it all.
And finally, a reminder: it is okay to go back and fetch what you put down.
With conviction.
With gentleness.
With pride.
Those gifts belong to you.
Sankofa.
Sankofa comes from the Akan language of Ghana and means “to retrieve.” It is symbolised by a bird looking backward, honouring the past to guide the future. It teaches that it is never taboo to return for what you left behind.
Love, love, love
This is speaking to me so deeply because I'm experiencing my own maropeng epiphanies and the call is very loud. Thank you for this. Retrieving is a big part of who we sometimes ought to become 🫂.