A retail shop that specializes in clothing and accessories made with African fabric is opening soon at 300 Beach Drive NE, Suite 111 in downtown St. Petersburg. The space was formerly home to Rob Bowen Design Studio, which has moved to 180 Mirror Lake Drive North.

EnnYe is the brainchild of Matipa Mutsemi and her sister Mercy Nyamangwanda. Mutsemi is an entrepreneur who was born in Zimbabwe and, in addition to her clothing line, created a brand of makeup called EnnYeEthnic Cosmetics. 

“Fashion is something I’ve always liked,” she said in an interview with St. Pete Rising. “Being African, I really enjoyed seeing color in prints. But post-colonization, at least when I was growing up, nobody wanted to wear African prints. It was more jeans … baggy shirts … everything that was happening in the United States in the 1990s. I’m a ‘90s kid. Watching American television and music videos influenced how we wanted to dress.”

Mutsemi moved to the United States in 2001 to study at Southern Methodist University in University Park, Texas, near Dallas. It was there that she began to yearn for the culture of her childhood, even though Zimbabwe, at the time, was mired in political and economic turmoil.

“I didn’t go home very often,” she said, “and the longer I stayed away from home, the more I wanted to connect with home.”  

Mutsemi, a finance major, didn’t launch the EnnYe brand until 2016. After graduating from SMU with a degree in finance, she worked for accounting giant Ernst & Young. After that, in 2008, she enrolled in law school at the University of Miami, a move that had far-reaching effects on her career.  

“That was a huge shift, but what I loved about Miami was that everyone is so expressive,” she said. “You feel like you can be yourself.”

With EnnYe, Mutsemi created a style all her own — modern fashion that incorporates traditional African prints and designs.

“When I started, I just made things that I wanted to wear,” she said, “to work, to brunch, all that stuff.” 

During trips to Zimbabwe to visit her parents, Mutsemi would bring back fabric or even have clothing items made there. “If I didn’t get it made there, I learned how to sew and would make it myself,” she said. 

African prints, Mutsemi added, have a rich history. Thousands of tribes over hundreds of years have developed their own signature prints, and clothing featuring the unique symbols has been used for communication and even as currency.

“The symbols are mainly decorative,” Mutsemi said, “but there are certain sacred prints that are reserved for royalty or for the death of someone who is notable in society. I don't touch those.”

When asked about cultural appropriation, Mutsemi said she doesn’t have a problem with customers from non-African cultures buying and wearing her clothing, if they aren’t doing it for the wrong reasons.

“This,” she said of her store, “is different from someone who’s not African going to pick up African fabric and saying, ‘I'm going to make money from this.’ When you share a culture, I think it's OK. If someone buys a dress in here, and they wear it to brunch, in my opinion, there's nothing wrong with that. It's only a problem when someone takes and uses it without permission, or when they use it for a purpose other than what's intended.”

EnnYe will carry clothing and accessories featuring prints from all parts of Africa, but Mutsemi said most items will feature designs from Zimbabwe and other nations in the southern part of the continent, because she is most familiar with those styles. She plans to make about half of the items that will be sold in the store, and the rest will be made by artisans in Zimbabwe who need the work.

“I do not buy apparel,” she said. “I have people in Zimbabwe who make this stuff because the economy has gone down so much. That there’s no textile industry; nothing is manufactured there; but you still have a lot of people who are skilled.”  

In addition to clothing, EnnYe will also sell handmade jewelry crafted from wood imported from Zimbabwe. Mutsemi’s collection includes necklaces, earrings, and bangles. Being crafts with imported wood and hand painted means no two pieces are exactly alike.

Mutsemi said she hopes to have EnnYe open by July 1st at at 300 Beach Drive NE, Suite 111 in St. Petersburg, FL. Jessica Dwyer of Dalton Wade represented the landlord as well as Mutsemi.

For more updates, follow her on Instagram at @ennye_collection or visit her website.