Attention, New Haven: We Have ​“Swag”

When Kwaku Awuah and Nana Poku look out over New Haven — the home they chose for their hot Pan-African fashion house instead of New York — they see stylish people everywhere.

“It makes sense,” Awuah said. ​“New Haven is very artsy.”

Awuah and Poku (pictured above) have spent hours just watching people in New Haven, getting a feel for the city as a stylish place, a creative place — from the unique sense of style among Gateway Community College’s students to the Yalies’ casually collegiate look.

Awuah said New Haven style isn’t something he can put his finger on, but he knows it when he sees it. That is part of why the pair chose the Elm City, not New York, as the home base for 54 Kingdoms.

“When we first decided to register the business here, we just spent three weeks walking around and looking at the personalities and styles,” Awuah said. ​“We said, ​‘Do these people know how much swag’ — and I don’t even use that term — ​‘they have?’”

Poku and Awuah hail from Ghana. Awuah, 30, has an MBA from Albertus Magnus College; Poku, 29, has a masters in graphic information technology from Arizona State.

They said that being based in New Haven gives them an outsider’s edge that translates into respect in New York, where they have built a buzz for their fashion line, which carries items ranging from belts to bags, pants and shirts to skirts.

“The idea of New York was never really as a home, but more so as a place to start the buzz for the line, because it is one of the fashion capitals of the world,” said Awuah, who serves as 54 Kingdoms’ president. ​“That was the thinking then. We were in New York so much that people thought we lived there, but we always made sure to tell them that we were from New Haven.”

The pair operate the company out of an office (pictured) in The Grove digital studios on Orange Street in the Ninth Square. Poku, who is the CEO and founder of the company, said 54 Kingdoms uses fashion to tell the stories of the African Diaspora.

For instance, the men designed a soccer-style shirt to celebrate the African countries that made it to the World Cup this year. The design features the African continent split in half with the flags of the countries represented on the half of the continent where they belong. When you first look at the shirt, it’s a little confusing.

But when two people wear the shirt it all makes sense. The two halves are brought back together in their rightful place, like a finished puzzle.

Poku said they made shirts to represent each of the countries for the 2010 World Cup, but that inspired people to support their own country and created competition. The 54 Kingdoms 2014 shirt was meant to inspire unity and pride in the diaspora’s representation in a sport that many Africans love.

African-inspired fashion is all the rage these days, with designers adding the intricate and colorful textiles to contemporary forms like the sheath dress and the pencil skirt for women. Awuah and Poku said they’re trying to bring something a little different.

Hence the story.

“Every designer has a responsibility to tell the story of where they are from,” Poku said. ​“For us, that means telling the African story, because that is where our home is. It is our responsibility to tell our story and pass the torch to the next generation. If we do that we have fulfilled our duty.”

Part of fulfilling that duty means creating space for fellow artists of the African Diaspora through an annual showcase called Story Telling in Fashion and taking on an intern from Malawi.

54 Kingdoms’s designs aren’t just for the people of the African Diaspora. They’re for everyone, including New Haven’s most fashionable. Eschewing the use of what they consider ​“hardcore African prints,” the men prefer to use the fabric to add subtle flair to each of their pieces. So instead of a pencil skirt covered in an all-encompassing print, you get a flourish to accentuate the waist or the outline of a woman’s curvaceous shape paired with a bold solid color while taking inspiration from some part of an African country’s culture.

“We design with two things in mind: the clothing has to look good and the story that you get with it,” Awuah said. ​“The idea really is to educate our consumer. Each of our pieces has a description of where the piece came from and a story about that piece. The idea is to spark an interest to do more research.”

“Our pieces are not for the African, but for the world with an African tongue,” Poku said.

The men are gearing up for Africa Fashion Week, which coincides with the start of New York Fashion Week. They have participated in Africa Fashion Week since its inception five years ago. This year Poku will present a talk on how small fashion companies can leverage technology to run their business.

“We are tech geeks and fashion geeks,” Poku said.

As if they weren’t busy enough, they plan to take their annual Storytellers in Fashion event on the road, likely to Washington D.C. (It has been hosted in New York since 2012.) The men are also hoping to build a bridge for their business that connects them other only to New York but also to Ghana, and they can see a day when New Haven style influences their design sense.