threads of independence

A tale of business, fashion and wisdom

I was born in France in the early 90s, to parents who had already begun building a life in the east of Paris. In our apartment, I remember them flipping through thick photo albums filled with images of the world they left behind in West Africa.

As they told stories of their families and the lives they lived before moving to France for their studies first and later for work, pointing at faces and buildings on yellow-tinted photographs, I would stare at their younger silhouettes frozen in time and think: Why do they look so… different?

Yes, they were younger... but it was more than that. Their posture, their presence, their clothing carried a completely different energy. Tailored, flamboyant, colourful outfits that stood in sharp contrast to the versions of them I saw in France: my dad in black, grey and tan suits as he worked in the French courts and later as a teacher; my mum in her neat black-and-white shop uniform.

Looking back now, I realise how many sacrifices were made along the way. The big, obvious ones like leaving their families, learning to build a life in a foreign country with limited support. And the less obvious ones, like the clothes they stopped wearing and the subtle ways they softened parts of themselves to blend in. When you immigrate to somewhere so different, your paradigms - the ways that you read the world - change, and with them some of the stories, their teachings and meanings, get lost.  

For many of us who grew up between cultures, success has long been tied to integration, to mastering the art of seamless belonging. In corporate spaces - from law to tech, medicine to finance - belonging often means fitting into a rigid visual code: tailored, grey, navy, black, clean lines. There has rarely been room for wax print or kente, or for talks about values and traditions.

This was clear in my own decade-long corporate career in London. I have been fortunate to find great friends, supportive leaders and generous mentors. As I climbed the proverbial ladder, I absorbed so much from them, and along the way, learned to approach corporate life almost as a scientific system with the formal codes and clinical aesthetic commonly associated with it.

But what if there was another way?

With my background in philosophy and my love for storytelling and global wisdom traditions, I wondered: beyond the budget numbers, the strategy meetings and tactics, was there space to talk about belonging in corporate life with wisdom, a word many professional are yet to hear in a meeting room? 

This question became the foundation of threads of independence. I wanted to create a space where professionals like myself could find clothing that subtly honours the richness of our roots and the lessons from those stories, to carry meaning and teachings while still meeting the static aesthetic of corporate dress codes.

threads of independence is not just another clothing brand. It is an exploration of how clothing can express values we believe in, drawing inspiration from ancestral wisdom to guide, encourage, and remind us of what truly matters, as we interact with other humans who happen to work at the same place.

My goal is to offer new, everyday clothing options for representation in environments where these stories and symbols rarely appear. I want to enrich corporate wear, each embroidered design being my own interpretation of history, proverbs, and stories of values and wisdom from across Africa. 

With this project, I will create capsule clothing collections that bring these experiences and narratives from one meeting room to the next and from boardrooms to global stages. 

This is Business Casual Heritage. Designed for modern professionals who lead with wisdom and thrive in thoughtful consumption. Just like you. Are you ready to lead with wisdom & dress the part? 

Aïcha Diarra
Founder of threads of independence, 2025.