It’s a new season, which means Sofía Sanchez de Betak’s Chufy line has a fresh starting point. After collections devoted to Argentina and Japan, this time around it’s Kenya. De Betak did a 10-day horseback safari across the Maasai Mara two summers ago, in which, among other adventures, she forged a river with water up to her horse’s neck and encountered charging elephants. After days wearing fitted riding clothes, she spent her evenings in loose-fitting, flowing frocks, including, she said, a stunner from Valentino’s Spring 2016 collection, which was likewise devoted to Africa. De Betak tends to be one the best dressed women wherever she goes, and the Kenyan savannah was no exception.
With its similar wild-animal motifs, this Chufy collection would indeed make charming campside attire on safari. But thanks to easy silhouettes, like a shirtdress with a relaxed cut and prominent pockets, it’s likely to be at home wherever it roams, in the wild or in the city. There are also matching top-and-pants sets and robes of the sort that were found in her Japan offering last season, only with an African filter rather than a Far Eastern one. Effortless shapes and eye-catching prints mixed well is the Chufy formula. The shirtdresses are cut with or without the contrast border of traditional Kenyan kangas. She also sourced some authentic kangas and put them through a washing and dyeing process; they will be sold as one-of-a-kinds on her e-commerce site when the collection launches this week.
De Betak is currently vacationing in Peru, as followers of her Instagram account know, so there’s bound to be an Andean collection in Chufy’s future.
