Process

Ideation & sketches

My project idea is to create buttons, ornaments, and accessories through 3D printing, treating them as meaningful design elements rather than simple additions. Rooted in SESONGA, the designs are inspired by Rwandan culture and the wider East African region, translating cultural symbols, forms, and stories into contemporary, digitally fabricated details. The goal is to create unique accessories that cannot be mass-produced, with each piece custom-made to respond to the individual client, garment, and occasion. By combining cultural inspiration, traditional tailoring, and digital technology, the project celebrates identity while offering a personalized and modern expression of craftsmanship.

In this collection, I aim to design a series of 3D-printed buttons inspired by the Ingabo, the traditional Rwandan shield that symbolizes protection, strength, and identity. Drawing from the shield’s distinctive circular form, layered structure, and geometric patterns, I translate its cultural significance into contemporary functional details for garments. By reinterpreting the Ingabo through digital modeling and additive manufacturing, these buttons become more than fastening elements—they act as cultural markers embedded in modern fashion. This approach allows me to preserve and celebrate Rwandan heritage while adapting it to innovative production methods, aligning the collection with my broader vision of merging tradition, technology, and craftsmanship.

These 3D-printed elements are designed to function either as cufflinks for formal shirts or as standard buttons for shirts and suits in menswear, offering versatility within the collection. By adapting the design to different garment uses, the pieces can move seamlessly from everyday professional wear to more formal occasions. Each button or cufflink maintains a strong visual connection to the Ingabo inspiration, while its scale, finish, and attachment are adjusted to suit its specific function. This flexibility allows the collection to respond to the needs of modern men’s wardrobes, where cultural meaning, elegance, and practicality coexist, and reinforces the idea that traditional symbols can be integrated naturally into contemporary fashion.

For women’s ornaments and accessories, I am exploring a wide range of ideas, including references to Maasai adornment traditions from the East African region. I am deeply inspired by how Maasai communities consistently express their cultural identity through what they wear, using accessories not only for beauty but also as powerful symbols of status, age, community, and life stages. The bold use of color, repetition, pattern, and form in their jewelry carries meaning and storytelling, rather than functioning as decoration alone. By studying these principles, I aim to reinterpret—not replicate—this cultural language through contemporary design, digital fabrication, and new materials. This approach allows women’s accessories in the collection to become expressive, meaningful objects that celebrate East African heritage while existing comfortably within a modern fashion context.

research papers can also be linked through an online link or when optimised, PDFs of research papers can be added to your repository and credited to the writer or researcher

Design & Fabrication

once you start designing and fabricating your first tests, you can link both at the bottom of the page with footnotes

"This step of the process was important because i learnt to draft my own pattern digitally. The first tests of this can be seen here on the right, find half- or test-fabrication files here¹"

Prototypes

prototypes are your first step towards shaping your final piece, product, material et cetera

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Mentoring notes

Mentors in all sessions may share with you their comments, notes, advise, projects and technical equipment to check out. This is good place to share those, so that you can find them later on when you need them the most!

Half-fabrication files

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1. Test file: 3d modelling test ↩