Fort Mosé 1738’s bold designs were highlighted during RVA Fashion Week’s 2022 Arts District show at Quirk Hotel. (Photo by Caroline Frye)
With a background in public relations and social work, Maurice Gattis never expected to enter the fashion industry. However, that’s exactly where a trip to Ghana in 2021 led him.
Gattis and his mother, Jacquelyn Gattis, hailed a cab outside the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park in Accra and were picked up by a driver named Nathaniel. What was supposed to be a short drive back to their hotel blossomed into a friendship over the course of the weeklong trip.
When Gattis and Jacquelyn expressed interest in buying clothes from Ghana, Nathaniel introduced them to his wife, Faustina, who makes custom clothing featuring bold colors and patterns. They purchased several of her pieces and maintained a friendship with the couple after returning home to the United States.
Fort Mosé 1738 clothing line founder Maurice Gattis at a solo show during September 2022’s DC Fashion Week (Photo by Truong Ly)
Not long after his return, Gattis received a message from Nathaniel asking if he’d like to sell Faustina’s clothing. “It was his persistence to connect to a U.S. market [that turned that dream into a reality],” Gattis says.
The partners decided that Gattis would design the clothing items and Faustina would make them in Ghana to sell in the U.S. The fashion line Fort Mosé 1738 was born. The clothing uses handwoven fabrics made of cotton or a silk-cotton blend. Its name honors the connection between enslaved people from West Africa and the first free Black settlement in what became the United States, Fort Mosé in St. Augustine, Florida.
“If people ask or engage with me, they learn about Fort Mosé and the connection between Fort Mosé and Ghana,” he says. In addition, Gattis hopes people “feel bold and empowered and confident, and they can express themselves freely and can embody the fusion of African culture and Western culture.”
What started as a 36-piece collection has evolved into something more. “Success for me at first was sending money for those pieces and supporting a family. But it turned out people started liking it, or they’ve been looking for things like this, or they hadn’t seen colors that bold, so as a result people started buying and asking questions,” Gattis says.
Gattis showed the line at RVA Fashion Week and DC Fashion Week in 2022 and says it was well received. He continues to learn and network to build a solid foundation for Fort Mosé 1738, and he is excited for its possibilities. “I’m hoping we’ll grow slow and steady, expand to a few more stores and make the online a little more robust. Maybe in five years [we will] have a small, little boutique. I think that could be the ultimate goal,” he says, adding, “and consistently continue to support Nathaniel and the products he makes.”
In addition to his work with Fort Mosé 1738, Gattis is an associate professor of social work at Virginia Commonwealth University, the advisor to the Queer Research and Advocacy Center (Q Collective) and co-founder of the Center for Youth-Engaged Research to Prevent and End Youth Homelessness. He’s currently on research leave in Cape Town, South Africa, after receiving a Fulbright scholarship.
Pieces from Fort Mosé 1738 are available at The Collective RVA in the Arts District and online at fortmose1738.com.
