Internationally recognised after Beyoncé wore her designs, Ivorian designer Loza Maléombho is now looking beyond fashion. Through Pokou, she is combining Baoulé history, local craftsmanship and artificial intelligence to build an African-owned creative universe spanning clothing, film, art, architecture and digital experiences.
On the fourth floor of a building in Treichville, one of Abidjan’s busiest commercial and cultural districts, the world of Ivorian designer Loza Maléombho is expanding beyond the clothes hanging in her workshop.
Maléombho is developing Pokou, a creative universe inspired by Queen Abla Pokou, the legendary founder of the Baoulé people, and reimagined through science fiction, fashion and digital technology.
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According to tradition, Queen Pokou led her people from the Ashanti Kingdom towards present-day Côte d’Ivoire. When they were unable to cross the Comoé River, Pokou sacrificed her only son to save her people. The story, which symbolises courage, selflessness and communal survival, is also associated with the origin of the name Baoulé, often translated as “the child is dead.”
“It is a story that everyone knows in Côte d’Ivoire so people can identify with it. But it is also a story about sacrifice, and I think that is something any audience can relate to in family, work, and life in general,” she said.
Maléombho drew on this story for her YouTube Pokou series, which launched in June 2026.
Developed using generative artificial intelligence alongside Maléombho’s own research and design work, Pokou is intended to promote the clothing label while opening routes into film, art, architecture, craftsmanship and digital experiences.
The project represents the designer’s attempt to turn African stories into commercially valuable, African-owned intellectual property.
Maléombho is not starting from obscurity. Her international breakthrough came when singer Beyoncé wore pieces from her Spring/Summer 2016 collection in the “ Formation ” music video. She later created a custom outfit for Beyoncé’s 2020 visual album, Black Is King . The appearances introduced her work to a global audience and strengthened her reputation for combining contemporary silhouettes with West African materials and imagery.
Now she wants to take the label beyond celebrity recognition and luxury clothing.
“The idea today is not that we want to dissociate ourselves, but that we are evolving more toward a multicultural creative studio and toward cultural intellectual property,” Maléombho said.
“We are no longer focused solely on producing products for sale, but more on creating a universe as such. There are characters, there are clothes, there are art objects, there are interactive experiences, there are architectural concepts.”
The shift is partly a response to the limitations confronting fashion businesses based in African markets. A conventional label must design collections, source materials, maintain consistent production, organise distribution and find buyers. Maléombho says African brands often have to do this without the supply chains, finance and logistics available to established international companies.
Her own business has encountered difficulties sourcing raw materials, finding specialised workers, maintaining consistent quality, accepting online payments, securing finance and transporting finished products.
Côte d’Ivoire’s cotton industry illustrates one of these structural gaps. The country is a significant West African producer, with output forecast at 590,000 bales of cotton lint in the 2026/27 marketing year. However, only a small proportion is processed by domestic spinning and weaving businesses; most fibre is exported to textile-producing markets in Asia.
That disconnect helps explain why Maléombho can work extensively with Ivorian artisans while still importing some of the cotton used in her collections.
Rather than relying only on selling larger volumes of clothing, she wants to create several commercial entry points into the same cultural universe.
“It is creativity, it is cultural ownership, it is our cultural stories,” she said. Pokou could encompass clothing, art objects, interiors and architectural concepts, while enabling collaborations and licensing agreements with companies in other sectors.
Artificial intelligence has allowed Maléombho to visualise parts of this universe more quickly, but she rejects the suggestion that it is the author of the work.
“What is very important to specify is that I do not give creativity to artificial intelligence,” she said. “People tend to think that AI designs everything, and then creativity is lost. But artificial intelligence makes a huge number of mistakes in terms of storytelling or even mythology in our African traditions.”
The digital ideas eventually become physical objects in the Treichville workshop. Maléombho works with artisans to test fabrics, dyes, embellishments and accessories. Bronze workers make buttons and a signature gold-plated buckle inspired by a Baoulé mask.
Jute, ordinarily used in sacks for packaging and exporting cocoa, is transformed through dyeing, appliqué, beadwork and printing. Raffia, Baoulé cloth, Kita cloth and hand-dyed cotton also form part of the brand’s visual language.
Baoulé is a traditional Ivorian cotton fabric, handwoven in distinctive patterns and colours and often worn at ceremonies, while Kita is a West African textile handwoven in narrow strips of cotton and silk.
For Norou Sow, a leather craftsman and artisan who has worked with Maléombho for more than ten years, the collaboration has changed both his methods of work and his livelihood.
“She taught me to work in a group. She also taught me to develop my experience,” Sow said. “Many things changed in my life when I started working with her.”
The company employs 10 people directly and works with more than 50 artisans in Côte d’Ivoire. Maléombho says 90% of its inputs or production are local, while some cotton and some manufacturing are sourced internationally.
The label sells through outlets or concept stores in Côte d’Ivoire, the United States, Nigeria, South Africa, the United Kingdom and Tanzania.
Côte d’Ivoire-based fashion and tourism specialist Dorine Negou sees the larger challenge as persuading African brands and consumers to recognise the commercial value of their own cultural identities.
“I think the difficulty is that we Africans want to adopt European models too much,” she said. “We have so many things that can enhance our value and attract more attention to us. It is up to us to rely on our brands, on our nature, on where we come from, and know how to showcase what we have.”
Yapo Patrick is a visual and installation artist who has taught colour and textile techniques for more than 20 years at the Centre Technique des Arts Appliqués (CTAA), or Technical Centre for Applied Arts, in Bingerville, Côte d’Ivoire.
Patrick said Maléombho’s journey demonstrates how formal training must be combined with personal commitment and a willingness to take risks: “There will always be limitations and difficulties, but creators have to commit themselves personally. They have to dare and decide to act despite those difficulties.”
However, turning the success of individual designers into a stronger domestic fashion industry will require broader investment in skills and local production. Although Côte d’Ivoire is a major cotton producer, only a limited share of its raw material is transformed locally into finished textiles and clothing.
Patrick believes vocational training for designers, pattern makers and tailors could help expand production and encourage Ivorians to buy locally made fabric and clothing.
“We need more information, more initiatives and more people investing in professional training,” he said. “If Ivorians can produce and consume Ivorian products, including fabrics, that will generate revenue and encourage both the state and the private sector to develop an ecosystem in which the fashion industry can grow.”
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Maléombho believes that Africa possesses a vast narrative and cultural inheritance but captures too little of its commercial value. The opportunity, in her view, is to turn stories, materials and craft traditions into products that retain a distinct identity while meeting international standards.
Her clothing label provides the initial commercial foundation. Its luxury pieces target customers drawn to the house’s craftsmanship and cultural references, while shoes, belts, jewellery and other accessories offer less expensive entry points.
Pokou would extend that model. A consumer might first encounter a garment in a film or digital world. A character could lead into a collection, while an imagined building might inspire furniture or another designed object. The story itself could be licensed or used in collaborations across different industries.
Over the next three to five years, Maléombho hopes to complete the transition from a fashion label into a cultural studio built around intellectual property. She believes the model could create jobs in traditional crafts, film, digital production and artificial intelligence.
“It is not just a clothing brand,” she said. “It is truly a multicultural studio that is in tune with the times and also knows how to innovate while keeping its roots in its history.”
From its base in Treichville, Pokou is attempting to bring Baoulé history into dialogue with artificial intelligence, craftsmanship with cinema, and clothing with architecture.
Maléombho believes the constraints facing African creative businesses can themselves produce innovation.
“The legacy I would like to leave would really be to show that, first of all, with very little, we can create much more value,” she said. “It is even within the constraints that we have the opportunity to innovate.”
