NATural BEAuty

Designer Korto Momolu on infusing cannabis with fashion and the benefits of medical marijuana.

By Rebekah Hall Scott
Photography By Sara Reeves

Korto Momolu infuses her bold designs with passionate storytelling and texture, including hemp fiber.

Fashion designer Korto Momolu is no novice to the beauty of natural fibers. Momolu, 50, has long worked with linen, burlap and wool, crafting clothes that celebrate texture and color.

“When you’re using natural fibers, the way they take on dyeing, and the way you can manipulate it, it’s so different from a polyester — there’s something about the weight of it,” Momolu said. “I love working with it because of the way it presses, the way it sews, the way it drapes, the way it flows. It blends well together.”

In 2019, the Little Rock-based designer collaborated with Women Grow, an organization that promotes women’s leadership in the cannabis industry, to create a cannabis-inspired clothing collection for New York Fashion Week. For the collection, Momolu worked with hemp fabric for the first time. Hemp is a cannabis strain that is low in tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC levels, and it is often used in fiber and papermaking. Momolu said she enjoyed the process, and in 2024 she designed several new pieces using hemp fabric for her fashion show at the Cannabis and Wellness Expo.

For her Spring/Summer 2025 collection at New York Fashion Week, Momolu returned to using natural fibers, including raffia. She said the pieces were inspired by her emergence from a dark period of grief after the death of her father.

“This last collection was called Rebirth,” she said. “I was turning 50 and entering a phase of my life where it was like being born again. My previous collection was about death and grieving, and this was about really coming out and seeing the light, and the color, and living again and laughing again.”

Momolu said she had stopped sewing for a time, but when she found herself ready to create again, inspiration came easily.

“Once I started that first piece, it was like water,” she said. “It was running. The ideas were coming, and it was fresh. I was remembering what I liked to do, like hand beading — all the things that make Korto, Korto. It was like learning how to walk after an accident. It was exciting, and I didn’t want to stop creating.”

The bold patterns and textural details — including tassels, fringe and embroidery — of the clothing help convey this narrative, which Momolu said is a vital part of her design philosophy.

“I tell stories when I make clothes,” she said. “I don’t just make a dress. The dress will represent something because I don’t believe that you just frivolously make stuff. I think telling a story is important because that’s how I express myself.”

Momolu said for her collection with Women Grow the story focused on highlighting the many benefits and uses of cannabis and helping to destigmatize the plant — an experience that also opened her eyes to the impact of medical cannabis.

“We were able to use the platform of the fashion industry to help bring awareness to it,” Momolu said. “Look at this beautiful plant that can also be made into things that we can wear, and be shabby and chic. It’s helping cancer patients and people in pain who can’t take opioids all day. It helped us start the conversation about the goodness of the cannabis leaf. We know what the stigma is, but look at how the good outweighs the bad.”

Medical cannabis has also provided Momolu relief in her own health issues. She has arthritis and anxiety, both qualifying conditions for a medical marijuana card in Arkansas. After Momolu’s doctor recommended her for a card, she tried different tinctures and gummies to help with her arthritic pain and to help her sleep.

“With the pain I have in my hips and arms, sometimes I can’t get comfortable, so some days I’ll use it to go to bed, to be able to rest and help my body chill,” Momolu said. “Especially after I’ve worked and been sitting up all day, it’s going to be an issue with your body when you do what I do.”

Momulu said it’s important to understand that medical cannabis is not a cure-all, but can be a helpful aid and an alternative to stronger medications.

“This was something that helped ease the pain,” she said. “It didn’t take it away. It’s not a magic pill, but it does give you a little better quality of life if you’re going through a lot of painful days.”

Momolu said she hopes to see marijuana federally legalized and, along with it, broader and more intentional education efforts about the plant and the drug.

“I think a lot of it is about education,” she said. “So many people are really ignorant about what marijuana actually is. Sometimes people say things and it’s like, ‘Where did you get that from?’ With more education about aspects that people may be afraid of, it could kind of take away that fear. People should really understand what you’re doing, what you’re taking and what it does.”

Momolu said her experience working with the Women Grow organization also helped her understand how women are uniquely suited to be leaders in the cannabis industry.

“It was very empowering,” Momolu said. “These women were CEOs, Ph.D.s, doctors. They were at the top of their game, top-tier women from all ranges of life who actually wanted to get in the field for the medicine of it. I’ve seen them curate a business out of something there is a real need for. These women are innovators.

“Women have the nurturing spirit.  We’ve always been affiliated with growth. It’s a natural place for us to be. It’s not just a business where it’s about money. With these women, it was beyond that. It was about the medicine and the people they’re helping. That’s how they embraced me.”

For Momolu, following her passions has been the guiding force at her center — wherever that force may take her.

“I’ve never just had this straight and narrow path where I just do what everybody else does,” she said. “One day I’m doing this, the next day I’m doing a cannabis line. Don’t be afraid to be who you are and stand by the things you believe in. It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks.”

Keep the good vibes rolling. Read more from the latest Arkansas Cannabis Times.