A Week of Outfits: Mbiye Kasonga

“I’m always chasing that feeling of walking down the street and having someone do a double-take at my outfit,” says Mbiye Kasonga, a D.C.-based podcast producer behind Naked Beauty. “I’m always smiling, and I’m Congolese — we wear bright colors and have no fear of standing out.” Here, she shares a dress made for adventures and three books to discuss at a book club…

Dress: Mara Hoffman. Shoes: Marni. Bag: Luar.

“At my old marketing job, whenever I went into the office, I’d wear a cardigan, wide-leg pants, and clogs. But now that I work for myself, half the week I’m wearing T-shirts with swingy pants; the other half, I’m in dresses. Never will you find me working from home in hard pants.”

Dress: Free People, similar. Purse: Luar. Sandals: Birkenstock.

“I wear this dress everywhere. It’s perfect for those summer days when you meet up with friends for brunch and end up staying out all day long. I also like taking myself on dates to read at restaurants, and this dress has huge pockets for my keys, Kindle, and phone. Last year, The Strategist reached out to me for a summer dress rec, and I shared this one. It sold out.”

“I went to business school, then worked in market research, but I’ve always been interested in digital media. I worked on the morning news in high school and in the TV studio in college, and I took a course on how to produce podcasts. When the pandemic rolled around, I had extra time on my hands, and my friend Brooke was looking for a podcast producer. So, I started that as a hobby.”

Jacket: old Zara. T-shirt: similar. Jeans: Free People, similar. Shoes: Vans x Telsha Anderson Boone collab.

“For two years, I produced Brooke’s podcast Naked Beauty while working my full-time marketing job. Finally, that December, my husband pointed out that producing was obviously no longer a hobby. I needed to bet on myself and start my own agency. Now, I’ve been running Moyo for two years.”

“My current team is a mix of people who are younger and older than I am. At first, I felt imposter syndrome whenever I had to assert myself as their boss. But over time, I realized that the proof is in the pudding. Naked Beauty has won two iHeartRadio awards for ‘Best Beauty & Fashion Podcast.’ I’m really good at what I do.”

Dress: Dôen, similar. Shorts: Warp + Weft jeans, altered by Mbiya. Tote: made by Mbiya. Shoes: Miista, similar.

“This is actually a dress from Dôen, and it came with a tie to cinch the waist. But I like wearing it as a top with cutoffs. Being curvy, if I were to wear cutoffs without some layering, I would probably stop traffic.”

“These cutoffs were originally jeans from Warp + Weft, which is a great place to find denim as a curvy girl. Almost everything is under $140, and many of their silhouettes go up to size 24. Plus, they have just enough stretch.”

“My mom loved to knit and taught my two older sisters. She passed away when I was two, but my sister taught me to knit when I was in elementary school. For a long time, I stopped picking up the needles. But when I moved to D.C. after college, I didn’t have any friends, so I dove into knitting. When you lose your parent as a child, you lose the opportunity to do things with them. But knitting is my way of feeling close to my mom.”

“Since learning to knit, I’ve realized that the best way to get the clothes I want is to make them. This going-out top is the first garment I ever made. I found the pattern on TikTok.”

Dress: Dôen. Sandals: Dr. Martens, similar.

“I was a big reader as a kid, to the point where the librarians would let me check out 10 books instead of three. I devoured them; I’d go to bed reading, then wake up and read. I also used to host a social reading event once a month at Shanklin Hall, a Black-owned bar. Everyone brought a book, and we’d either hang out and discuss them, or the whole bar would just be reading. It was so much fun.”

“My whole thing is, I just want to connect with people over books in the same way that we connect over reality TV. Half the time, the stuff that’s happening in the books is just as wild! My top three book club picks are My Sister, the Serial Killer, The Office of Historical Corrections, and Homegoing. Those are my heavy hitters.”

Thank you, Mbiye. We adore you! You can follow her on Instagram, if you’d like.

P.S. More week of outfits, including a graphic designer with the best denim-on-denim set, and a writer who’s over six feet.

(Photos by Maeva Komenan for Cup of Jo.)

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