Juliana Norteye

Juliana Norteye, also known by her married name Juliana Kweifio-Okai and by her label Chez Julie, was a Ghanaian fashion designer often described as the country's first formally trained post-independence designer. She is remembered for reviving and modernising the kaba.

Life and career

She was born in 1933 in Nsawam, one of twelve children. She worked as a clerk at the Ministry of Education and sewed on the side before training in Paris at the École Guerre-Lavigne (now ESMOD). She returned to Accra and founded Chez Julie in 1960. Her work combined Ghanaian textiles and draping with European couture techniques; one of her best-known pieces is a late-1960s kente kaba. She designed for about thirty years and died in 1993, aged about 60.

Legacy

On 7 November 2026 she was honoured posthumously as one of seven fashion pioneers at the inaugural Black Star Fashion Week in Akosombo, with relatives receiving the citation on her behalf. Some sources give 1995 as her year of death.