House of Xandria Expands Malawi Fashion Business Through Inclusion

What changed

House of Xandria has grown from Xandria Kawanga’s hand-sewn 2015 dress into a 15-person creative business with a Lilongwe showroom, couture, menswear, interiors and textile retail.

Its expanding portfolio includes Xandria.Man, Xandria.Home and Fabric Universe, while its All Shades of Beautiful runway reaches its fourth year as an inclusive platform for designers and models with physical disabilities.

Why it matters

Kawanga’s business is doing more than making red-carpet clothes. It is building pieces of the fashion system around itself.

Fabric Universe was created in response to Malawi’s lack of local fabric factories. It supplies House of Xandria, local designers, bridal clients and tailors with luxury materials, including French lace, guipure, sequined lace and ombre satin. That turns a production obstacle into a retail business, even as imported textiles continue to raise costs and complicate timelines.

The same pattern runs through the brand’s social work. The 2020 recycled-newspaper dress made sustainability visible, while All Shades of Beautiful, launched in 2021, created a platform for people with disabilities who had faced exclusion from the industry. Kawanga says the project began with 20 designers and is still running four years later.

The clearest reading is that House of Xandria’s strength lies in connecting commercial expansion with practical gaps around it. Its celebrity clients include Tiwa Savage, Khanyi Mbau and Gwamba, but its more consequential work may be the infrastructure it is creating for other Malawian creatives.

Kawanga is now considering banana-fibre fabric production in Malawi. The scale, timing and commercial feasibility remain unclear. If it moves forward, the project could shift the brand from sourcing local alternatives to making one itself.