Name to know: Suno

Suno, the New York-based brand established in 2008, built its name on kangas. "I still have crates of them," says Suno's co-founder Max Osterweis, of the brightly coloured African sarong-style wraps that inspired his foray from screenwriting into fashion.

"Every time we went to Kenya people would hear about Max, the bald guy who was looking for vintage kangas, and they'd go by boat to other villages and pick up people's old ones. Then people started sending them to his mom's house," Erin Beatty, his design partner, adds wearily. "We would be sorting through them for days and days, trying to find matching pairs."

Finding a kanga's missing partner wasn't just an obsessive-compulsive tic; it was a necessity. The first Suno collection was made entirely out of the kangas Osterweis had been collecting since he first visited Africa at the age of 13. "I was really conscious of how much fabric we were going to use," says Beatty, who previously worked on the design teams at Gap and Donna Karan. "The very first collection was flirtier than we've been since," Osterweis chips in, laughing. "Everything was very…short."

Suno has come a long way since the first one-of-a-kind collection, and is now popular with New York's fashion twiglets for its colourful embroidery and quirky proportions. That said, wacky kanga prints still influence the duo. "The prints are so amazing, because they are so mismatched," says Beatty. "They are literally knocking off everything they see, whether it be Michael Jackson's face, or a paisley pattern, or something that looks very Japanese."

Judy Greer, Lupita Nyong'o and Hailee Steinfeld, all wearing Suno. Photo: REX

They've had to adapt as the company has expanded - the wake-up call being the season when their sales ballooned by 380 per cent. "We started with this insane idea that we were going to produce out of Kenya and New York," says Osterweis. "We were literally encouraging people to start work shops in their backyards. We would bring people in to train tailors, because there is no garment industry in Kenya, and we thought that we could start it from scratch.

"In a way, we did, but it also disappeared as quickly as it started. As soon as we had trained 30 tailors, they would stick with us for a season, then leave and go back to be the most awesome tailor in their village." He laughs. "We had to re-evaluate."

Suno founders Beatty and Osterweis pull a serious pose

They now source textiles from Italy and Korea, and work with ethically-sound workshops in India, Italy, Peru and New York. Their team of 11 works out of an office in Manhattan, where they can keep the "Suno family" under control. "Manufacturing is mainly going to be in the US where we can control the quality; then we'll keep special projects in Kenya so we're not setting people up for failure," says Osterweis.

The formula seems to be working; Suno was a finalist in the Vogue/CFDA Fashion Fund in 2011 and 2012, and the winner of the 2013 CFDA Swarovski Award for Womenswear. Over 70 retailers stock the line, and they have big name fans in the shape of Lupita Nyong'o, Taylor Swift and Michelle Obama.

Next on the cards is a stand-alone store - and a baby for Beatty. Will the Suno aesthetic change as she becomes a mother for the first time? "Oh yeah, it's just fat girl clothes now," jokes Beatty. Osterweis interjects: "We have a cut-out dress which is one of our best-sellers, and we're just going to move the cut-out." There's a pause, "That is so gross!" Let's hope they keep it flirty.

Via: Name to know: Suno