Denim is Braisha Owens-Mount’s canvas. A midcalf denim trench coat, distressed and bleached by hand, completes a layered look. Denim harness chaps can be worn over pants. A corset made of denim hems creates a bold under-bust silhouette and features adjustable lacing in the back.
“I can bleach it, I can distress it, I can paint on it — I can do so much,” says Owens-Mount, an Akron-based fashion designer, creative director and the founder of Kissed by Bo, an online retailer and style experience. “I like to show people the innovation of it.”
Born and raised in Akron, Owens-Mount attended Miller South School for the Visual and Performing Arts and was in an arts program at Firestone Community Learning Center. For her senior capsule collection there, she created mannequins, then dressed them in outfits made of scrap materials such as flower petals. She also stretched canvases over doorframes and drew on them, creating large-scale fashion illustrations.
“Fashion’s always been my outlet,” she says.
She got her first sewing machine at 13 years old and became mainly self-taught. Owens-Mount went to Kent State University, majoring in fashion merchandising and minoring in marketing. There, she competed in the Rock the Runway competition, creating a collection inspired by the golden age of hip-hop. Outfits included a cropped vest with a mesh hood lined in denim with a gold industrial zipper, cheeky high-waisted denim shorts and a paint-spotted and jewel-bedazzled bra, overalls made of denim and stretchy chambray with a white bandeau top and an upcycled oversized denim vest with elastic ribbing at the bottom, a teal drawstring from a 90s-style jacket and an embellished back.
“This is the upcycling at its best,” she recalls. “The inside was hand-sewn satin zebra print.”
Around 2015 after college, she founded Kissed by Bo.
“My lips are big, and I love them. This is what I’m rocking with,” she says. “So, when I style you, you’re going to be kissed by me.”
In 2022, she displayed some of her work in a showroom in Los Angeles, where it was picked up by the stylists of red carpet-going clients. A denim bikini bottom made it to the iHeartRadio Music Awards, worn by singer-songwriter Moxie Raia, and an entire outfit — complete with a denim bralette, high-shoulder vest and skirt — graces the cover of singer Jordin Sparks’ 2022 single “Stop This Feeling.”
“I love a good, strong shoulder when it comes to denim, because that makes it couture,” Owens-Mount says.
She designed a series of cages — corsets made of boning wrapped in denim to be worn solo or over clothes — pairing one with a white button-up shirt and a poufy wrap tutu skirt crafted from a deconstructed retro homecoming gown.
“I took the bottom part of the dress, and I opened it up,” she explains. “I got a bunch of tulle, I got scrap denim and some blue satin scraps, and I just sewed it in a line on the skirt … I gathered it too.”
She also created a top from a basic denim corset with denim-wrapped boning and elevated it with mesh tulle, styling it with a patchwork high-slit denim skirt and a handcrafted wire necklace.
Other designs include a cage corset underneath a distressed denim train coat originally made for “The Voice” singer Sandy Redd and oversized patchwork overalls with a drop crotch, paired with a satin scarf styled as a shirt — featuring a textile print created by Owens-Mount. Plus, her fly jeans — originally created for “Players” singer and rapper Coi Leray — showcase distressed denim and strips of multiple denim types.
Along with Kissed by Bo, Owens-Mount is the founder of Haus of Bo, the overarching entity that houses Kissed and The Paper Bag Chronicles, which explores fashion, personal identity, wellness and empowerment through a podcast, speaking engagements, programming, interactive, transformational events and more. Also a mother, Owens-Mount is driven by passion, faith, vision and her family — including her mom and fashion commissioner, Starr, her dad, Keith, her husband, Charles, and her baby, Chancellor.
“How does being a designer fulfill me as a person? Because it’s the fruit of my hands,” she says. “It shows other people that it’s possible … that you can live your dream.”
Joe Tate
Joe Tate
Joe Tate
Joe Tate
Joe Tate
Joe Tate
Erin Gulling
Erin Gulling
Erin Gulling
