Since 2013, House of Aama, a Los-Angeles produced label, has paved the way in connecting spirituality and education with fashion. In many cases, spirituality and fashion have been in unison through mediums like jewelry, specifically with crystals. But for Rebecca Henry, 53, and Akua Shabaka, 23, the mother-daughter duo, have instilled their heritage into HOA from the designs to their community outreach. “We focus on Black folkways, storytelling, and using our research to inform our designs,” Shabaka adds. “Our mission is to explore Black folklore, experiences, nuanced history, and being informed by that to create what we’re inspired by.”
These worldbuilding elements are carried into the brand’s name. The Kemetic namesake, Aama, meaning “the benevolent one” originates from Ancient Egypt with a connection to the Het-Heru goddess. As the logo is in hieroglyphics, “Aama” represents what the duo stands for: a connection of femininity, graciousness, and kindness. With extensive rounds of research, the two have unearthed their familial history and placed it back into their designs.
We spoke with Akua Shabaka on her path to understanding her individualism, family research, and how two have influenced the direction of the brand. From its dainty lace appliques to the Louisiana-inspired color palette, House of Aama exemplifies what it means to design with purpose.
Shabaka grew up in the South-Central district of Los Angeles, California, with a family line from Louisiana, South Carolina, Cuba, and Jamaica. On her father’s side, he has traced their lineage to Ghana. Her mother has traced back to the Gullah and Geechee people of South Carolina. Through her parents’ groundwork research, Shabaka has faced a dual complex of normality and an outlier in her neighborhood. “My entire family, including myself, had dreads and my dad would come to school with African clothes on. It was a different identity compared to what I was seeing; while all the girls wore pigtails, I wasn’t,” she shares. “At the time there were not a lot of representations of girls with dreads so I never viewed it as feminine. This was during the hyphy movement when dreads were more so attached to males and masculinity.”
At home, her family traditions were a mix of African American Hoodoo, connected to her mother’s Louisiana roots, and Pan-Africanism. Each family member is a practitioner of the traditional African religion, Ifa, which is a Yoruba practice. As a family, they had ancestry altars in their home, gave offerings to the ocean, and connected to Spirit. However, in middle school, Shabaka reached a point of separation from the teachings she learned young. “I was trying to connect with anything that didn’t feel like what I was used to; my cultural upbringing,” she admits. “I was having a very Black-kid-inner-city experience and I was detaching myself completely from what I grew up on.” Through attending a diverse school, she gradually began to understand her uniqueness.
From there, she began homing in on her individualism. As she puts it, “individualism means connecting to your personal spirit. In Ifa, there’s a term called ‘ori,’ which represents your head, intuition, spirit, and guide. Being an individual is truly catering to that identity; what fuels your mind-body, and soul; what makes you look in the mirror and feel proud of yourself.” Through her parents relaying her identity as a Black and an African descendant person, her appreciation for her roots became fonder. She went back to her roots to relearn what was engulfed in her as a kid but tailored to her liking. “It’s important to [find yourself] with anything culturally grown into,” Shabaka stated. “I feel like there’s always a shift at some point where you have to make it your own identity; decide ‘is this something that I want to carry as my identity or is it not necessary?’.” Some new additions to her daily practices include Lightworking, Divining, and connecting with the moon phases.
This reintroduction to her individuality has played a greater role in her creative self-expression. In her traditional practices, there was a theme of colors, beads, adornment, celebration, ceremonies, and music which were channeled into her style. “I always look at myself as exploring different characters or versions of myself,” she reflects. She considers the overall “look, how it feels, what elements shine or don’t; and what adornment represents the [her] mood.”
This deep dive into self-elevation induced the birth of House of Aama in 2013. While in high school, Shabaka’s reintroduction to her traditional practices and embracing her Ghanaian culture became the focus for the label, “to create modern-wear in African influenced garments and fabrics.” There was a strong embracement of the local African markets that were in the inner cities, which resulted in the duo’s first collection, titled “Urban Nomad.” Together they sold on Etsy, at pop-up shops in the neighborhood, and vending at college fairs. “That was the model, sourcing our fabrics locally, connecting with artisans in West Africa, and highlighting [our contributors] on our website. In addition, history topics were a focal point of their website, including Kente cloth, Adinkra symbols, and how the Massai ethnic group also used plaid as traditional wear and an adornment staple. The goal was to create a connection between young adult-wear with West African influences.
Tiara Dulce Bestia
While vending at Afropunk, the duo noticed a sudden influx of African wear. This prompted a shift into a new direction that was still culturally inspired but more specific to their familial history. During Shabaka’s first year studying Strategic Design and Management at Parsons in New York, the duo took a step back to analyze what fueled them and their interests. What came of that, was a vivid direction that involved “research, African American culture, the connection between African American and African culture,” Shabaka shares. “We wanted to show this in a different way [by] focusing on the Creolization in America [rooted in my mother’s lineage], with nostalgic references, and design elements that we were interested in.”
In 2018, the team launched a rebrand with their “Bloodroot” collection. As a result, the self-funded brand has cultivated a community that connects to the storytelling, imagery, nostalgic references, and timeless design elements beyond their coveted blush-yellow Victorian dress. Through their brand, the two curate monthly book lists, which include research-based books and novels; folk-stories that cover specific people that inspire their designs, for example, Zora Neale Hurston, and learning workshops on topics such as their creative process and quilt coding. Black quilting codes were communication tools in the Underground Railroad. This workshop gave people an idea of the effort, value, and personal connection to the creation.
These experiential learning moments are tied back into what House of Aama implements in informative designs. Their recent collection carries collectibles with a focus on silhouette art forms through a Louisiana/Creole lens. As part of their collectibles collection, is a “Southern Girl” with a confident stature on the hoodie. “The symbol is supposed to represent happiness, beauty, femininity; the Southern belle you never see that as a Black woman, Shabaka adds. “There were a lot of wars happening during this time, but we can’t say that Black people weren’t looking at themselves dignified, Black women were looking at themselves as Southern Belles, or representations of femininity.” This approach has allowed the HOA story to remain true to themselves and how their personal stories are all interconnected.
As Shabaka continues to learn more about her heritage by working alongside her mother, she hopes to continue streamlining her knowledge through workshops. That includes covering African American Hoodoo, hands-on-related like creating a mojo bag, “which is a spiritual amulet pack that people carry with them for protection,” and on entrepreneurship, including starting a brand; applying for grants; remaining funded; maintaining a direct-to-consumer business model.
With this full moon upon us, she also intends to remain gratuitous and authentic. “It’s worked for us and we don’t want to abandon that now that we have a new audience,” she says with conviction. “It’s about setting the intentions to remain authentic to ourselves, true to our ancestors, storytelling, and welcoming the abundance and prosperity that we feel comes. That’s where I’m at now; remaining thankful and authentic.”
Muse: Akua Shabaka
Photographer: Kanya Iwana
Stylist: Kaitlyn Vitug
Hair: Fesa Nu
Makeup: India Hammond
