When Fisayo Longe posted a picture of herself wearing a white sundress on , it quickly amassed 100,000 views, as people pleaded with her to tell them where it was from. Several followers tried to reverse image search it. Alas, it was not yet for sale.
Thirty-two year old Longe tends to test the waters by soft-launching the designs for her brand on social, but even she was surprised by the response to this dress. Her Instagram post about the gown has since garnered . Named Adesuwa, Longe, a sensible small business owner, had initially only ordered 200 units.
“From the response, I knew that was not going to be enough,” she says over Zoom. To help get a sense of numbers, Kai Collective released the option to pre-order. Four thousand people joined the waitlist.
One thousand people immediately purchased it. “It was a dress to fit every woman and every situation,” Longe explains of its appeal. With its cinched and ruched waist, puffy hips, long length and simple white hue, it’s both and , modest yet sexy.
“It makes for a great canvas,” she adds of the flattering piece that works just as well for walks in the park as it does for weddings. Expect it to be everywhere now that summer has arrived in the UK. Longe, it turns out, went through five iterations, initially designing the dress in a black, pink and red colourway until her team decided to eliminate colour altogether and make it in white cotton.
The frenetic response has led them to extend the size range from XS to .
