Reuben and Lévi Uwi are two intelligent, inspiring, delightful, and charming young men. Imagine what it would be like to flee your home country at the age of 7, spend the next three years in a country, in this case Kenya, not your own and to finally at the ripe old age of only ten come to a country totally different from anything you’ve experienced before.

Thanks to a supportive network of family and friends Reuben and Lévi settled in nicely making the Vancouver area their permanent home. As Lévi told me it has similarities to Rwanda in that there are mountains and an ocean.

Educated in a small, independent French school starting in Grade five through to graduation both young men are grateful for their bilingual abilities and credit their French language skills as responsible for their jobs in government and banking respectively.

Their interest in art and design have brought them to centre stage and they are fast becoming well known for their sophisticated and feminine designs as well as their tastefully casual designs for the urban male.

Not only are the twins creative designers they are gaining an appreciative following. They are also thoughtful and considerate young men. With everything they have going on in their busy lives they still take the time to think of others and one of their goals is to return to Rwanda to help other, less fortunate, children discover the benefits of exposure to visual arts. The country is slowly building an economy but there are still families and children living in poverty who the twins feel deserve an opportunity like they have had.

Their collection of women’s fashions are a classic yet modern take on today’s young woman going from the workplace to evening. Many pieces feature leather accents and I particularly liked the cap sleeve blouse with its bright floral pattern.

The beautiful strapless dress is available in a number of colours from subtle white to vibrant yellow.

Men’s fashions range from a casual jacket in a print featuring their signature logo to today’s hot trend of hot red or buttercup yellow jeans for the young, urban male. The unisex t-shirts tell their own story with pictures of the twins as children or on another where their pictures are superimposed into the year of their birth – 1987.

http://myvancity.ca/2014/07/05/uwi-twins-pop-shop-smashing-success/#.U-vlaoBdUxh