When two sisters, Deidre MacKenna and Delmary Delport, found out their mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s they felt a deep need to create something that was more tangible to hold onto who she was.
What started out as a light-hearted phrase to laugh off life’s challenges gave birth to a women-owned brand Hello Coloured Life that strives to empower women while honouring the life and memory of their mother Cecilia MacKenna.
MacKenna told Weekend Argus their mother, who was diagnosed with Alzeimer’s disease at the age of 58, was a strong, fierce and immensely funny woman, who disappeared before their eyes with the loss of her memories.
She said it had been difficult to process when her mother started to deteriorate so quickly, and continues to do so.
“Losing our mom’s influence at an age where we are both still navigating womanhood has been the toughest. The disease knocks you off your feet when you least expect it. Our mother’s phases of dementia have been so rapid, we lost her quicker than we expected or were able to even process.
“You go into management mode and then suddenly the grief overwhelms you out of nowhere.
“We lost her so fast that we were desperate to channel her energy and love for se-goedjies (favourite sayings). In 2018 after toying with the idea of making mugs (with her favourite sayings) we took the plunge to register a business,” she said.
The duo now have a full-fledged range that has seen their business grow.
“We sell T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, totes, you name it. We have invested into our own printing now, and with that it changes our ability to produce more stock as the demand grows again,” she said.
Delport described Hello Coloured Life as an extension of a coloured existence, and by that it’s not just about coloured slang and lingo.
“No two coloured people are the same because of our rich history of slavery and diversity. That’s something we wish to celebrate as a brand – we are not one, but many – and as many we are one amidst adversity, which has also been a major shift for us over the past few years,” she said.
Even though the brand started in 2018, they had to close shop for a while due to Covid-19 and other factors, but the entrepreneurial duo say they return with a new range to relaunch their business.
“The new range we will be launching soon is called Harriets. Harriets is a term often used for ‘glamorous hair’. Growing up as two sisters with vastly different hair, it fascinated me most, as I had the more coarse strand of hair, filled with kinks and curls, which was often tamed with relaxer and sheen hair straightener,” explained MacKenna.
The duo then did some research and MacKenna was fascinated by the concept of hair being more functional than it is beauty.
“Hair is meant to mean something more than the westernised lens from which we were taught to view it. When you look at the concept of bodily hair, it’s mostly functional, it serves a purpose. For example eyebrows prevent sweat from coming into your eyes, lashes are made to hood your eyes from harsh UV rays.
“In the same way, we see black hair is more water resistant in some ways, so we would ask these questions, like maybe our hair is this way to protect it from water damage, we are surrounded by the ocean after all in most parts of this country. Shorter hair – Is this because of the heat and climate of being in this part of Africa?” These are the thoughts that gave life to the new range.
“We want our kids to know that their mothers added something to the large bucket of self acceptance, we want them to know we are not ashamed of our accents, kroes (coarse) hair and every stereotype they used to break us. We want to channel our pain into power. That’s the magic of Hello Coloured Life. It’s more than just culture, we are a deeply diverse people grounded in a space of similarity and vast differences,” said MacKenna.
Weekend Argus