Founder · Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire

Kaihza Kuyo — fashion entrepreneur, founder of Kiki Jones, Abidjan

Founder of Kiki Jones. Building a new generation of African retail at the intersection of style, culture, digital and community.

Kaihza Kuyo, founder of Kiki Jones, portrait

Manifesto

From Abidjan to the future of fashion commerce.

"Fashion is not only what people wear. It is how a generation expresses identity, ambition and culture."

In growing Kiki Jones, Kaihza Kuyo has learned how fashion really sells in Côte d'Ivoire — between Instagram, WhatsApp, the boutique and delivery. The brand doesn't live on a single channel. It lives where they meet.

01 — About

Founder. Builder. From Abidjan.

Kaihza Kuyo is an Ivorian entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of Kiki Jones, a ready-to-wear brand she launched in Abidjan in 2017. From the boutique to the app, she has grown Kiki Jones into a brand, a community, and a fashion experience of its own.

She has built Kiki Jones into a boutique, an app, a community, and a runway. Beyond fashion, she creates events that bring Abidjan together: the Ivochella urban festival in 2022, then Cakenic by Kiki Jones in 2025.

"I don't copy models from elsewhere. I build from what I live, from what my customers live — here, in Abidjan."

Fashion EntrepreneurFounder of Kiki JonesIvochella PromoterEvent CreatorAfrican FashionDigital Commerce

02 — Ventures

The Kiki Jones ecosystem

Fashion · Retail · Digital

Kiki Jones

Ready-to-wear brand founded in Abidjan in 2017. Physical boutique, mobile app, e-commerce, and community.

Kiki Jones — a fashion retail brand built from Abidjan.

Visit the site

Runway · Culture · Event

Kiki Jones Fashion Show

Much more than a runway — fashion, music, dance, art, and culture, around the talent of Abidjan.

Follow the event

Personal brand · Vision

Kaihza Kuyo

Vision, entrepreneurship, lifestyle and journey. The perspective of a founder building from Abidjan.

Follow the journey

03 — Events

Creating moments where culture is lived.

Beyond fashion, Kaihza Kuyo creates events that bring Abidjan together: an urban festival, a photo installation, a picnic turned into a gathering.

Ivochella

also written I'Vochella

Dates: December 22–23, 2022
Venue: INJS, Marcory — Abidjan
Role: Promoter

Billed as the first urban festival in French-speaking Africa, Ivochella brought several festivals into one over two days at the Institut national de la jeunesse et des sports. Kaihza Kuyo's ambition: a platform for entertainment and cultural exchange that puts Côte d'Ivoire on the map.

Programme

Concerts
Food court
Exhibition-sales
Game space
Fashion show
Selfie museum

The Selfie Museum

At the heart of Ivochella, a space of sets designed for photography, where every visitor becomes the subject of their own image. One of the festival's headline attractions.

Cakenic by Kiki Jones

also known as Cakenik or Cake Picnic Abidjan

Dates: August 30, 2025 — first edition
Venue: Botanical garden — Abidjan
Role: Creator

A giant open-air picnic built around one simple rule: every guest brings a cake to share. Inspired by the cake picnic movement, Lagos among others, Cakenic brings together dessert lovers, content creators and fashion enthusiasts in Abidjan, inside the Kiki Jones universe.

Programme

Open-air picnic
Cakes to share
Content creators
Kiki Jones community

See Cakenic on TikTok

04 — Timeline

Built step by step.

Kiki Jones — Abidjan

2017

Launch of Kiki Jones.

Creation of the ready-to-wear brand in Abidjan.

2021

Going digital.

Development of the Kiki Jones app to digitize the shopping experience.

2021

Marketing training.

Telfer School of Management, University of Ottawa.

2022

Ivochella.

Promoter of the December 22–23 urban festival at INJS Marcory, featuring its Selfie Museum.

2024–2025

Kiki Jones Fashion Show.

Creation of a fashion, cultural, and community event.

2025

Cakenic by Kiki Jones.

First edition of the giant cake-sharing picnic, August 30 in Abidjan.

Today

A fashion platform in the making.

Building the website and app to make Kiki Jones a reference for fashion shopping in Côte d'Ivoire.

05 — Vision

The future of African retail is cultural, digital, and community-led.

In growing Kiki Jones, Kaihza Kuyo has learned how fashion really sells in Côte d'Ivoire. A customer spots a piece on Instagram, asks her questions over WhatsApp, visits the boutique, has it delivered. The brand doesn't live on a single channel — it lives where they meet, where trust is built.

Her conviction, earned through running a business rather than theorizing about one: fashion commerce in francophone Africa won't have to copy models imported from elsewhere. It will have its own codes.

Kiki Jones is how she intends to prove it — one collection, one customer, and one runway at a time.