In a world where fashion often chases trends, Cardum Sage Penn is weaving something deeper — a living narrative of culture, healing, and futurism. As the Couture Creatrix & Founder of DA+AF (Diaspora Atelier + AphroFuture), Cardum has built a visionary fashion house that transforms garments into vessels of identity, memory, and transformation.
DA+AF – Diaspora Atelier + AphroFuture
Founded at the intersections of heritage, innovation, and healing, DA+AF is more than a fashion brand — it is a bridge between tradition and futurism. Every piece reimagines ancestral textiles and cultural symbols into convertible couture that flows and evolves with its wearer. Handmade with intention, DA+AF garments are designed as living art — bold, adaptable, and deeply rooted in storytelling.
Guided by the ethos “Feel the culture. Wear the future,” DA+AF celebrates African diasporic resilience while dressing tomorrow’s visionaries.
The Collections
Each seasonal mini-collection tells a story of empowerment and transformation:
- Sacred Threads – couture silhouettes crafted from luxurious mud cloth, plant-based leathers, and embossed Adinkra symbols, radiating AfroFuture elegance.
- Goddess Flow – a light, convertible collection designed to move and flow with the body, embodying liberation and grace.
- Structure + Flow – tailored yet fluid designs balancing strength with serenity.
- Aphro Luxe – merging diasporic elegance with futurist sophistication, this line features hand-crafted silhouettes in ancestral textiles reimagined for timeless luxury.
From mudcloth couture coats to plant-based leather silhouettes, DA+AF merges ancestral wisdom with futuristic design — honoring the past while imagining liberated, visionary futures.
Symbols of Strength & Spirit
Cardum’s work is deeply influenced by Akan Adinkra symbols such as Nkyinkyim (the winding road of resilience) and Gye Nyame (the omnipresence of divine creativity). Each piece becomes a spiritual conversation between heritage and innovation, connecting wearers to timeless stories of endurance, beauty, and empowerment.
On the Global Stage: Fashion for Social Good
DA+AF’s artistry has graced platforms like TrapxArt and Waa Reem’s International African Fashion Week, reflecting the brand’s expanding global resonance.
In October 2025, DA+AF will present at Collections Soirée and Presentation – Angelman Syndrome Awareness Campaign: Fashion for Social Good in London, an event that merges high fashion with humanitarian purpose. Through this showcase, Cardum aims to highlight how couture can be a catalyst for healing, awareness, and community upliftment — further expanding AfroFuture fashion as a global language of empowerment, belonging, and beauty.
Following this, DA+AF will make its New York Fashion Week debut in 2026, continuing its mission to honor heritage while inspiring the future of global couture.
About the Founder – Cardum Sage Penn
Cardum Sage Penn is a cultural curator, designer, and global wellness leader whose work bridges fashion, healing, and diasporic reconnection.
- Co-Founder of R-Evolution | Dialogues in the Diaspora, a global platform fostering resilience and cultural reconnection through immersive journeys in Ghana and Rwanda.
- Co-Founder of Finding Your Well, helping individuals and organizations cultivate wellness, restorative leadership, and sustainable success.
- Former CEO of Heart & Soul, Inc., where she led community wellness programs engaging 7,000+ participants annually, advancing healing through lived experience and collective care.
- Global Creative Roots – her time modeling and performing in Paris expanded her cross-cultural perspective, shaping her artistic and global vision.
Through each of these chapters, Cardum has woven a life’s work centered on connection, creativity, and cultural empowerment — culminating in the creation of DA+AF, where fashion becomes storytelling, healing, and futuristic imagination.
Connect with DA+AF
Website: www.da-af.com
Email: Cardum@da-af.com
