Dispatch Accra, Ghana.

Byline: BY RACHEL ROY EDITOR: ALEXANDRA KOTUR

Asked by the United Nations to participate in a fashion show benefiting their World Food Program in Accra, I immediately knew I wanted to take my daughter Ava. Her eyes lit up as we rode in the back of a pickup truck along dirt roads to the White Sands Beach Resort on the Atlantic Ocean. We slept off our jet lag on the beach, which was littered with dozens and dozens of unique seashellsit was like a candy store for an avid shell collector like me.

The next day, she and I went shopping in the capital, where batiks, tie-dyes, and weavings (the rich colors and patterns could inspire my collections for an eternity) were sold on the streets, like a market. A local let me buy a chestnut-colored pony-hair bag right off his shoulder, and I picked up a black vintage-looking sewing machine that most vendors had for my own New York showroom. That day Ava giggled harder ...