HILLBOROUGH COUNTY, FL. – To understand the pride, you can feel it when you walk into Accent Style Boutique – you have to understand its humble beginnings with owner Angie DeGante.
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“I literally started with earrings,” she said, “and then it grew into a pen and pad where I’m drawing things that I enjoy wearing and never knew my designs would leave the page and come to life.”
Over the past four years, she has moved from ear jewelry and a small storefront to a thriving space in East African fashion.
DeGante says her love for East Africa, and Kenya in particular, began with a vacation she took years ago.
“I was supposed to be there for a two-week vacation and I decided to stay and extend it for three years,” she said.
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And it’s a bridge that works both ways.
DeGante told ABC Action News that her boutique allows her to educate the community about the beauty of East African culture.
But it also allows her to hire East Africans to help make the designs and help support orphans there.
“That [money] It provides their hygiene, fulfills their educational needs, provides their daily needs like food,” she said.
She says the work is filled with passion and her father’s words of wisdom.
“My father always told me, ‘You have to leave a better place than this [when] You’ve arrived,” Degante said.
