Placeholder — final shoot pending
OUR STORY
This isn't the first time I've tried to build Monyo Mortoo.
I first started the brand in 2016, with the same instinct I'm following now, but nowhere near the readiness to fully bring it to life. Corporate life pulled me back in, and the idea sat quietly for years while I helped build other people's visions instead of my own. This relaunch is me doing it properly this time, with the experience, resources, and patience I didn't have the first time around.
The pull toward Ghana isn't new either. My roots are Ewe, and the thread between New York, where I was born and raised, and Ghana, my second home and the birthplace of my parents, has always been woven into who I am. Monyo Mortoo is where that thread finally gets to be the point, not just the backstory.
Why clothing?
Some of my earliest memories begin with my mother. She worked full-time as an executive at the Bank of New York, but in her free time she'd sit at her sewing machine and make clothes for us: our Easter and birthday dresses, our Halloween costumes, even the dresses we wore as flower girls at family weddings.
At the time, it just felt like what my mother did. Only now, as an adult, do I understand how extraordinary that was: the time, creativity, and love she poured into making something just for us.
I've been obsessed with clothes for as long as I can remember, how they make us feel, how they let us express ourselves, how the right piece changes the way we carry ourselves. Fashion was never just something I loved. It was one of the first ways I experienced creativity, care, and self-expression.
Why now? Why not now.
After years of helping shape strategies, stories, and visions for other people's companies, I'm finally ready to build something entirely mine, on my terms and in my own time. The first attempt planted the seed. The years since gave me the experience and patience to do it right. This time, I'm following it all the way through.
