CroChel founded by Alberta Nana Ama Awuku, Nana for short is a fashion brand born in Ghana with the goal of sharing her crocheting styles with a global audience. Handmade and knitted CroChel creates clothing for women of all body types, shapes and sizes. Her clothes come in vivid striking colours made to be sustainable, long lasting and are produced from the softest yarn to maintain that softness throughout. Her clothes are made to last and make the wearer feel both beautiful and serve as a daily reminder of that fact. CroChel is a brand that makes beautiful handmade clothes for today’s bold and beautiful women.
CroChel started as a way for Nana to make extra money during her university and with the help of her mother(a brilliant crocheter) the first bralettes were produced. Doing both the marketing and delivery herself Nana’s first and earliest customers were her friend and classmates. Eventually joining in the production herself, CroChel has now grown to include six additional crocheters all working to make products we cant help but love. Making other women feel this way was all the motivation Nana needed to keep going and make this a full-time business. CroChel is both eco and environmentally friendly with very little waste, and a no plastic packaging policy.
Her greatest joy is using her skill and creativity to empower women- to make them feel good about themselves. With a love and freedom of being her own boss- and not being limited in terms of creativity and also the freedom of setting her schedule, Nana tirelessy continues to work towards her dream and pushing CroChel to a wider global audience.
Growing up Nana was always skinny and petite and being raised in a country that saw the standards of beauty as curvy and thicker body types left her sel-concious and with a want to change herself, to conform to her society’s beauty standards. With CroChel today she realises that beauty comes in all shapes and embraces herself and the desire to make other young women and girls see that they are too.
In today’s world where social media and mainstream media presents impossible beauty standards, Nana says “my brand is here to show that you are beautiful regardless of your size, body type, or skin tone. You are beautiful the moment you believe you are. For this reason, we make for every size and body type”.
Now that CroChel is established in Ghana, the next step is to take it to the rest of the world so they too can enjoy what CroChel offers- sustainable fashion, inclusivity, and empowerment for women. Nana wants CroChel to be a worldwide brand known for its unique and beautiful handmade pieces with access to the right target market. A representation of what it means to be classy, beautiful, and unique.
When asked about what she would have done differently, she says “I would have gotten myself a job after my national service, saved enough from my salary before starting my business. But thinking again, I fear if I had done this I may never have left my job because of the security it would have offered. So maybe it’s a good thing I didn’t”. Making unique styles and posting high-quality, interesting content on social media is what sets CroChel apart.
Nana considers her greatest highlights as the creative process of coming up with new collections, shooting videos for them, and launching them. There’s something exciting she says about seeing a vision come to life.
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