Africa: Loza Maléombho Is Building An Industry From African Stories

Internationally renowned Ivorian fashion designer Loza Maléombho is expanding her creative empire beyond the realm of fashion. Through the establishment of Pokou, a creative universe inspired by the legendary Queen Abla Pokou and infused with science fiction, fashion, and digital technology, Maléombho aims to create an African-owned creative industry spanning clothing, film, art, architecture, and digital experiences.

Based in Treichville, a bustling commercial and cultural district of Abidjan, Maléombho's workshop is becoming the hub of her new venture.

The Queen Abla Pokou story, which symbolizes courage, selflessness, and communal survival, is deeply ingrained in Côte d'Ivoire's culture. This story has been the inspiration behind Maléombho's YouTube Pokou series, which launched in June 2026 and uses generative artificial intelligence to promote the clothing label while opening doors into film, art, architecture, craftsmanship, and digital experiences.

The designer seeks to turn African stories into commercially valuable intellectual property while building a multicultural creative studio.

Maléombho's international breakthrough came when Beyoncé wore her designs in the "Formation" music video and for her 2020 visual album, Black Is King. Now, she wants to move her label beyond celebrity recognition and luxury clothing. Instead of just producing products for sale, Maléombho is focused on creating a universe with characters, clothes, art objects, interactive experiences, and architectural concepts.

The designer recognizes the limitations that African fashion businesses face, including sourcing materials, finding skilled workers, maintaining consistent quality, accepting online payments, securing finance, and transporting finished products. As a result, Maléombho can work with Ivorian artisans while importing some of the cotton used in her collections.

Rather than relying solely on selling clothing, Maléombho aims to create multiple commercial entry points into the same cultural universe. She believes in creativity, cultural ownership, and African stories as the foundation of her brand. Pokou can encompass clothing, art objects, interiors, and architectural concepts, while also enabling collaborations and licensing agreements with companies in other sectors.

While artificial intelligence has helped Maléombho visualize parts of her cultural universe more quickly, she emphasizes that she does not give creativity to AI and that it makes numerous mistakes in storytelling or mythology. Instead, she collaborates with artisans to test fabrics, dyes, embellishments, and accessories, resulting in physical objects in her Treichville workshop.