Fashion Designers
KUTULA by Africana
KUTULA means “to step into” or “leap
forward” in Lozi, a Bantu language spoken
in Zambia. The KUTULA brand—originally
known as Africana Imports—has been
making quality-craqed, inspiring, luxury
designs since 1971. With a celebrated focus
on the beauty and expression of our origins
in Zambia, Nigeria and Los Angeles, they
have spent more than 45 years as one of the most established bouHque retailers in
the U.S. for globally-inspired texHles. StarHng in the early 70s by the original owner
Francesca, the original flagship locaHon was on Slauson and Crenshaw in Los Angeles
where the brand and business was a vibrant and thriving establishment flowing with
life, history, and culture, that has amassed loyal and beloved customers, as well as
leading Hollywood actresses and actors, musicians, arHsts, poliHcians, world
dignitaries over the decades. KUTULA’s designs were featured in both the opening
and closing scenes of 2016’s #1 grossing blockbuster, Marvel Entertainment’s Captain
America: Civil War, featuring Black Panther, the first black superhero in American
comics played by Chadwick Boseman. Most recently, KUTULA has also exclusively
dressed actor, David Oyelowo and family for the full mulH-city movie premiere of
Disney's Queen of Katwe (2016) as well as Hollywood actors and musicians such as
honorary AKA member,