In Los Angeles, Akua Shabaka and her mother, Rebecca Henry, connect to a video call. They are similarly illuminated by window light, despite joining from different locations: Henry sits in her working studio, while Shabaka appears on-screen from a cozy alcove. They have matching sets of warm eyes. For nearly 10 years, the two have been professional partners in the development of their heritage label, House of Aama. Beyond the familial bond, the duo shares deliberateness in their sartorial practice—they are crafting materiality for unsung Americana.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Our brand is very focused on the narrative and the stories that we're telling, and so
00:06we are focused on the black experience.
00:09We're focused on filling in that white space in what you would call Americana fashion.
00:15We're focused on history, remembrance, and transference of family stories down the generations.
00:24And so when you look at the black experience here and how it reaches over to the islands
00:30and the continent, we are telling that cohesive and that collective story.
00:35And so a lot of times that ends up being a story that is rooted in the past, but that
00:40has currency in the present.
00:43Hi, my name is Akua Shabaka.
00:46And I'm Rebecca Henry.
00:48And we are House of Ama, the mother-daughter design duo.
00:52And we're hanging out today with Essence.
00:58Our creative process, specifically in the studio, is a very interesting way of thinking
01:03about Ama.
01:04And I've never thought about it that way, but really, I would say that as storytellers
01:10and as a brand that focuses a lot on the research component and the folklore that anchors the
01:17collections, when we get into the studio, that's really where the fabrication exploration
01:24comes into play.
01:25That's really where we start to think about what will be the textiles that we create.
01:31Specifically being here in downtown Los Angeles, we're immediately where our manufacturers
01:36are, our production is, because we produce everything here.
01:39And so when we get into the studio, we're actually going outside of the studio a lot
01:45because we're on ground going to these different artisans and there are different manufacturers
01:52to produce these pieces.
01:53I believe our studio is very task-oriented when we come into the studio.
01:59Akua is the project manager, and so she really sets out what our daily agenda is going to
02:04be and the task and the milestones that we have to hit daily, basically, daily, weekly.
02:11My mother is much more in the studio on an everyday basis, and I would say that she has
02:17an even deeper relationship with the materiality and the people that we work with on a day-to-day
02:23being just head of the production, and it really stems from when we were creating the
02:29pieces in her living room, and now we've brought the living room component to the studio.
02:42When you look at Alma, you'll see nostalgic textiles, but then you'll also see timeless
02:48references as well, and also contemporary designs, just even paying homage to me and
02:54my mother's age difference and our age gap as well that I think anchors and makes the
02:59brand even more beautiful.
03:01And yeah, these are the ethos.
03:04House of Alma is essentially the home in which we're able to explore who we are as a people
03:10and how we want to express ourselves in the world.
03:14My maternal line is from Louisiana, Shreveport in particular.
03:19My mom is from there, and all of my mom's family is from there, and my mom is actually
03:25like an archivist and a genealogist and has done extensive research on that family ancestry,
03:33and so we know exactly where the plantation is that my family was on.
03:37And Shreveport is Shreveport.
03:39It's a port city, and so it was like a dropping spot where you had African people, and African
03:45people were enslaved during the time in which we became, you know, dominant there.
03:52All the women in my family sew and do handicrafts, quilt work, needlework, all kinds of work
03:58with the hands.
03:59Our family has a Southern legacy, and so when we decided to focus in on storytelling in
04:04our brand, we looked in our own family histories and started to tell those stories.
04:13Similar to what we're doing with our brand, where we really decided that this would be
04:17a point of healing for us and exploration, where each collection, we're really looking
04:22at either stories that are known to us or stories that we want to unpack deeper.
04:26I remember when we did our Amato's collection, there was a lot of stories that I didn't really
04:32have all of the details for in terms of my ancestral lineage in the Caribbean.
04:38And so I was able to take this time to really speak to my aunties and people who are getting
04:44much older to really try to repair these stories, and I use that as an example as to how other
04:51people can use their creativity.
04:53We have Zora Neale Hurston over there, and she's one of what you would call our sheroes.
04:59And it was because Zora Neale Hurston was an author, but she was also an archaeologist.
05:04She was a folkloricist.
05:06She was a researcher, and it was really her mission and purpose in life to really explore
05:11Black identity, in particular in the South, because she knew that in the South is where
05:18really we had the root of our culture before even the Jim Crow era in which we were being
05:27dispersed.
05:28And so it was at its strongest there in terms of the Africanisms.
05:32Our brand is also very focused on character and development and building out environments.
05:37And so we're very inspired from her personal narrative and the character development, and
05:42we've taken that type of focus into our collections when we develop characters and themes and
05:49environments and how we build them out.
05:51I learned as the parent to be flexible in my role as the parent, and I've learned that
06:02I need to accept advice sometimes from my daughter in the role that she's in as the
06:07project manager and the person that really makes the machine run.
06:11So I've had to humble myself and accept that she's an adult, and a lot of times, like I
06:18tell her, she's right about most things.
06:20Working with my mother, we spend so much time together, and it's very rewarding to
06:25be able to spend that much time.
06:26I think as I'm getting older, I just appreciate it more and more.
06:31I think that working together works really well for us because we know how to lean into
06:36the areas of our interests and where we have the most strength with the brand.
06:41And I think that, really, for my mother, we lean on a lot of her personal stories and
06:47familial heritage, and she's really the anchor of who House Havana is, and we wouldn't be
06:54House Havana without her.
06:56My constant motto is staying open and curious about what the day has to bring, places I'm
07:01going to go, people I'm going to meet, and experiences I'm going to have.
07:04What I love most about this particular work is the research and continuously discovering
07:12new nuances of African people, African-American people, African people in the diaspora, and
07:19just discovering the rich heritage and history that we have, and just mining that in terms
07:26of stories that we want to tell.
07:32AMA is the creative, the community that comes from creative, and the community that comes
07:38from running a fashion brand, and there's so many parts to it, and I don't think people
07:44realize all these parts, but it's the community that you build through working with the textiles
07:50and wherever you want to go with that, whether it's making fabrics, or embroidery work, or
07:57you want to work with a small artisan.
07:59So there's that community, but then there's also the community of the people that you
08:03work creatively, like photography, video, styling.
08:09You create all these communities through the work, and I think that's something that gets
08:15me going because I have the ability to pick and choose who it's going to be, and learning
08:21more, and I think that for me, just being explorative in that way has always been really
08:27exciting in running the business.
08:34Something I continue to tell myself is that I'm excited for the new life of AMA, and it's
08:43because we've had the brand since I was in high school.
08:46It's been 11 years, and we've been able to accomplish a lot as entrepreneurs when you
08:52accomplish a lot, but then there's so much path to go.
08:56You realize that sometimes where you need to be excited is the next breath.
09:02What will be the new lessons that you learn?
09:04What will be the new things, the new pathways that you have to break through, and the new
09:09struggles that you have to find?
09:11And I think through our experiences, we've had to learn so much so fast, and now I'm
09:17just excited to see how with realizing all of that, and just learning even more about
09:22the business itself, where we will take House of AMA, I feel confident that we'll be able
09:28to do it.
09:32I feel confident that we'll be able to do it.