Benjamin Kontoh is far away from his home in Accra. It was in 2009 when he decided to pack his tape measure and scissors and take his suit making skills to the Chinese market.
![Graça Machel was born in 1945 [CGTN]](data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf8,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg'%20width%3D'100'%20height%3D'100'%20data-ring-placeholder%3D'1'%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E "Graça Machel was born in 1945 [CGTN]")
He has not regretted the decision.
Kontoh runs Brash and Saccy Bespoke, a tailoring brand that is gaining ground in three cities in China with a mix of British style and Ghanaian uniqueness. He credits his time on Saville Row with shaping his style but felt he needed to shape his own look.
"Saville Row was extremely influential-it shaped who I am but i also felt that tailoring in the UK was already so set in its own way. I've always admired how China has come so far to develop into what it is today so I thought this would be the perfect environment fro me to build my self and develop my brand."
He has more than done that with outlets in Suzhou, Taizhou and his flagship in Shanghai. Not bad for a chap who first developed his love for fashion at his high school in Kumasi, Prempeh College.
It was in Shanghai in December 2017 that him and other black creatives came together to stage the first ever Shanghai Black Fashion Week.
The well attended show opened up their craft to a wider market and who knows, it could be the start of an bigger slice of the Chinese tailoring pie for Kontoh and his friends.
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