Fashion and style are very important to young people, and Augustus Edgar Quartey wants to influence the fashion sense of young people in Ghana and beyond through his clothing brand, Exklamation.

Edgar, an alumnus of Mfantsipim School and the University of Ghana, started Exklamation in 2018 as a thrift shop, and his second business in addition to his vocation as a filmmaker.

However, in two years, he has been able to transition his business from a thrift shop to a clothing brand for young people.

I started my clothing brand in 2018 and the plan was to get a second job which could bring some money, while I tried to make money from filmmaking. So the plan was to just get some income coming in from another side but right now Exklamation, my clothing brand, has become my main hustle in addition to filmmaking.”

Edgar transitioned Exklamation from a thrift shop to a clothing brand in October 2020.

“I started running it as a clothing brand in October 2020. I released the first item on October 12, 2020.”

He has so far released two main products – Prof K’s and Djembes – and will release more this year.

Edgar’s Prof K’s, named after his friend, are body harness bags. Djembes, named after another friend, are cargo pants.

Why “Exklamation”?

The name of his clothing brand was inspired by an interesting incident that happened when he was in primary school.

According to Edgar, he wore a perfume which his mother owned to school. His teachers liked the fragrance of the perfume and asked him to find out its name so they can also purchase it. Discovering the name of the perfume, however, ended up meaning a lot to him.

“The name of the perfume had ‘exclamation’ attached to it. The word ‘exclamation’ became so special to me… So I checked the dictionary meaning for it and the meaning made sense to me. So I always wanted to name something I will do in the future ‘exclamation’, and I think it really connects with making clothes so I decided to name my clothing brand ‘Exklamation’.”

Influence through fashion

As someone who wants to influence the fashion sense of young people, Edgar, in promoting his clothing brand, has featured influential people who appeal to the youth in Ghana. He has featured RJZ, Kiddblack, Tulenkey, Dancegod Lloyd, Incredible Zigi and others.

“The clothing line is for young people so I like to feature people who appeal to the youth… and I will be featuring more people who have that college/high school vibe and are very influential,” he said.

“I just want to put out quality and influence the style of dressing among young people and old people who are young at heart,” he added.

His next project

Edgar is set to release a documentary this year titled Self Made, which will tell the story of Exklamation.

“It’s about me and Exklamation. I’m launching Exklamation this year… so all my friends and everybody I’ve worked with will talk about me and my journey,” he said.

“I’m also trying to launch my store this year. I also want to open more stores in every corner of the country in the near future so that my clothes will be accessible to every young person,” Edgar added.

His other job: Filmmaking

Aside from running a clothing brand, Edgar is also a filmmaker and the CEO of Exposure Network. His movies are mostly high school-themed and focus on young people.

He has joint-produced a couple of movies, but 14:32, which he collaborated with his friend Prof K to make, has earned four international awards. 14:32, a dance film released in 2015, features Deborah Vanessa, RJZ, Dancegod Lloyd, Incredible Zigi and others.

14:32 won the Best Feature Film of three different award schemes – 2016 Silicon Valley African Film Festival in California, America; 2017 Pan African Film Festival in Cannes, France; 2017 Helsinki African Film Festival in Helsinki, Finland. The movie also won the award for Best Trailer at the 2016 African Film Festival in the USA.

Edgar is also working on a new high school film which is scheduled to be 2022.

For his dream as a filmmaker, he said: “I just want to make high school movies and I just want to be known in Africa for making the coolest high school films.”

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