Kampala’s fashion scene witnessed a landmark moment on Sunday when celebrated designer Abbas Kaijuka staged the first solo showcase of his label, Kai’s Divo Collection, on Ugandan soil, a milestone run that unfolded at the Miss Universe Uganda 2026 Sashing Ceremony, the same evening that saw 15 delegates officially advance to the next round of the pageant, and 120 outfits showcased.
For a designer whose name has long been associated with East Africa’s biggest fashion stages, from Kampala Fashion Week to Swahili Fashion Week and beyond, the showcase marked a full-circle moment: a body of work built over years, finally taking center stage in his own city, in front of his own people.
A Journey Told in Three Acts
Rather than presenting a single line, Kaijuka used the runway to walk guests through a retrospective of three distinct collections, each carrying its own emotional register and visual language.
Kaijuka described the first collection as a study in transcendence, an exploration of white and gold designed to evoke the sensation of being lifted somewhere higher. “It was more angelic,” he explained, “that softness that you feel like in a dream.” The palette and silhouettes were built to carry guests toward something otherworldly, almost heaven-bound, before the show shifted gears entirely.
Where the opener floated, the second collection grounded itself firmly, in black, and in power. For Kaijuka, black is never simply a color choice but a statement. “Black is powerful. Black is about freedom,” he said, tying the collection to a broader idea that has anchored much of his design philosophy: that fashion, at its core, is an act of freedom.
The night’s final chapter was its most layered, a single collection built from multiple, deliberately distinct movements. It opened in red, a nod to love, before transitioning into green, representing nature. From there, the collection moved into hand-painted pieces, where fabric itself became a canvas, treated with an artistic finish to give each garment a one-of-a-kind, painterly texture. The mood shifted again into a polka dot and stripe segment, a combination Kaijuka pointed out choosing precisely because it isn’t common ground for other designers. “No one thinks of doing a collection of polka dot and stripes,” he said, framing it as a deliberate break from convention.
Closing in Leather and Vogue
The showcase closed on its most personal note, a leather segment built around fabric printed with Vogue magazine cover art material Kaijuka had custom-made himself years earlier, during his run at Kampala Fashion Week. He had the leather manufactured and hand-selected the prints at the factory, pairing magazine-cover imagery with leather-print detailing to create a textile that, in his words, was meant to represent fashion itself. It’s a piece of his archive he has held onto for years, and Sunday’s showcase gave it a fresh runway moment in front of a new audience.
A Milestone for the Label, and the Night
That the showcase doubled as the Miss Universe Uganda 2026 Sashing Ceremony gave the evening added weight. It was the event at which 15 finalists were officially unveiled and sashed, each now advancing toward the pageant’s grand finale as they compete for the chance to represent Uganda on the Miss Universe stage. The pairing of Kai’s Divo’s storytelling runway with the pageant’s own milestone moment made for a night that celebrated two firsts at once, and placed Kaijuka’s design language in front of a room that included some of Kampala’s most recognizable faces in music and entertainment.
For Kai’s Divo Collection, though, the headline of the night was simple, after years of showing on regional and international stages, Abbas Kaijuka finally brought a solo showcase home.
