Creator Spotlight: Kenyetta Caldwell

12/13/2020

Kenyetta Caldwell, CEO of Creo by Keca

Kenyetta is a Detroit-based 30-year sewing and production veteran, Style Coordinator, CEO and Creative Director of Creo by Keca. The brand's design range spans from everyday streetwear to couture. A personal favorite of ours? The "Fancy Ass Gloves" are to die for.

Fancy Ass Gloves

A taste of Creo by Keca

Coming to fruition in 2016, "Creo by Keca represents a lifetime of skill sets from designing, tailoring, automotive and apparel production, along with specialty sewing like bridal," says Caldwell. With over thirty years in the apparel industry, Caldwell sews her line of handbags and apparel herself in Detroit: "I have always been tactile and kinesthetic in my approach to things-I put a lot into what I create, it's my passion, my baby." However, the start-up costs associated with local apparel manufacturing are extremely steep to navigate alone.

Furthermore, those that have made a foothold for themselves in Detroit's growing apparel industry are rarely representative of the historically Black population of the city.

In 2019, Caldwell decided to do something about it, and tapped three other veteran textile artists to start the conversation. "We saw a need to have a presence of a minority owned apparel production company in Detroit," says Caldwell, "being a native as well as a veteran in production sewing, I feel we can make an impact in an industry that isn't typically inclusive of African-American women and men." Looking forward, Caldwell and her new team have big plans for the fledgling initiative.

Pulling support from other local efforts to organize the industry, Detroit Textile Artist Collective now represents an intergenerational coalition of textile artists, who are demanding and manifesting better working conditions as well as more artistic control over their work.

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