black history and african inspired clothing with a modern twist

Rare Culture London; an urban clothing brand for men, women and children, 

After many years of working in the fashion and retail industry, this vibrant brand was created by Simone Connell in 2014. 

all clothing is designed and inspired by antiquity, a mix of west African fabrics/textiles, ancient symbolism, with a Caribbean twist.

As a black British girl, growing up in 80s/90s london wasn’t always easy, there wasn’t a lot of opportunity and everything was ten times harder to achieve, but my father always taught us to love where we come from and remember who we are, so I always kept pushing! 

When I was a teenager my parents got me a sewing machine as a gift, (which i am eternally grateful for) it taught me the freedom of being creative, over the years I also learnt more about us as a culture and the way we express ourselves through style and clothing, music and food! We put so much love into everything we do, in Caribbean culture our elders have a lot of the same mannerisms as our African brothers and sisters, we share some of the same characteristics and the basic elements of both cultures remain the same. 

I wanted to create a brand that brings all cultures together. 

“We are more alike than we are different, and our culture influences the whole world”.

2019 we will be expanding our brand, by adding some colour therapy into the mix, our founder (simone) is a trainee colour therapist as well as a fashion designer, so we are putting together some special workshops combining clothing and colour therapy.

More info coming soon!