Bleejay Innis hopes to bridge cultural boundaries with ‘Motherland Wear’

Liberia-born Bleejay Innis is a resourceful young entrepreneur living the American dream and pushing the African agenda, after his escape from the war in Liberia. Based in Worcester, Massachusetts, Innis together with Chayanne Tweh, has founded an apparel brand, ‘Motherland Wear’ to capture what the African continent means to them. “A mother represents a sense of home and belonging when you think about her, and Africa as the motherland represents just that for me”, he explains.

When he created the brand, his central focus was on creating a sense of pride in the African continent so that people can never forget the importance of Africa in this world. He hopes that this brand can increase interest in Africa and share the fun and beauty of the African culture. Motherland targets not only Africans of all ages but people from all races and cultures, and it hopes to share the African culture with everyone so that they can embrace it by wearing the clothing; even if they are not of African origin.

I caught up with Innis, a college graduate from the University of Massachusetts Amherst pursuing a Bachelors degree in International Business, to find out more about the brand and his future plans.

Ameyaw Debrah: What message does your brand carry?

The mission statement of our clothing line is “Bridging Cultural Boundaries through Fashion”. When people see our clothing we want them to feel a part of the African culture and we want people to know that no matter the differences in culture, we are all one people. By wearing our clothing, people are closing boundaries between cultures and becoming one.

Ameyaw Debrah: What range of products is available on Motherland Wear?

As of now, we focus on T-shirts and Sweatshirts but our range of products will be expanding in the very near future. I would say that the two things that make us stand out from other brands is the array of cultures we touch, and the educational component to our line. On the back of every Motherland Wear T-shirt you will find a Did You Know educational fact about an African country, and this draws a lot of excitement and attention from people all over who see our designs. We use a lot of cultural phrases and words from different countries that people of those cultures relate to.

Ameyaw Debrah: What inspired you to get into creating Motherland Wear?

As an entrepreneur, I am always looking at ways to expand my personal brand, and my personal love of fashion made me want to create something to call my own. I would say our designs are creative, stylish, and fun all together. We have only put out one collection so far, and it is all about African pride. The use of big and bold letter express the sense of passion we have for what we are trying to accomplish.

Ameyaw Debrah: What is the creative process for Motherland Wear?

Creating this line is a lot of fun. We have input from Africans of all types and it is a lot of fun to learn about each other and grow together. Because my business partner and I are both still college students, it is very hard to balance school with our brand and production becomes hectic, but we have a company in Philadelphia that produces the products after we have submitted our designs to them from us. They take a lot of stress off our shoulders, and all we really worry about is giving 100% to the creativity of our designs.

Ameyaw Debrah: What influences do your pick from Africa in creating your products?

We try to use as much from the African experience as we can. Our designs can be funny or serious, but we make sure that we capture a message in every design for people to walk away with, while having Africa on their mind. Because we only do T-shirts and sweatshirts for now, all of our shirts are made with 100% cotton and are of the best quality. We use a lot of red, green, and yellow in our designs to capture the central colors used in the flags of African countries, but our designs are open to even more colors that represent the colors of American sports teams and more. Outside of the themes and words used in our designs, there are no African fabrics used.

Ameyaw Debrah: What are the new trends in fashion that you have observed?

The fashion industry continues to grow and change and I have noticed the people are wearing more clothes that make a statement in a unique way. We feel like that is exactly what our brand was made to do, and we feel like this shirt in fashion will help us easily adapt.

Ameyaw Debrah: What is your personal sense of style?

People tell me that they like my sense of style, so I guess I’m doing something right. I like to keep up high fashion clothing, but being a college student you can’t always keep up financially as you would like, but I do my best to keep myself always stylish and well put together.

Ameyaw Debrah: Which fashion items would you suggest for a modern young African?

A pair of designer jeans and designer dress shoes is a must. As Africans we love to dress fancy and look good all the time, and I have noticed that a great pair of designer jeans (True Religion, Rock & Republic, etc) and dress shoes can never fail you.

Ameyaw Debrah: Who are you favorite fashion designers?

Personally I am a huge fan of the Ralph Lauren collection, and the Gucci collection. Their designs are always creative and trendy. They always manage to come up with something new that people haven’t seen before.

Ameyaw Debrah: Do you have a shop for Motherland Wear?

Motherland Wear is currently only sold in our online shop at www.motherlandwear.com but we look to hitting different stores and boutiques in the near future. We do a lot of social network promotion, fashion shows, word of mouth, and visual promotion. We constantly have people wearing our clothes in different parts of the country, and we are planning on using some African professional athletes to help with our promotion. We have a lot of big things planned for the future of this company and it is only a matter of time before the world knows about us.

Ameyaw Debrah: What does the future hold Motherland Wear?

I personally hope to use this company as a way of going back to Africa and giving back to the people. If I am blessed with growth in this company, I will love to pour it all back into the continent that made me who I am. If this company doesn’t grow the way I plan, I still plan on returning home to develop more African entrepreneurs. With future aspirations of conducting business development projects in Africa, I hope to employ and educate African youth in the area of entrepreneurship. God has given me new life by allowing me to escape death during the war in Liberia, and I intend on giving a form of life back to my continent as well.