South Africa based Zimbabwean fashion designer, Lancome Runako Mudyavanhu (35), believes prominent and well-known players in the industry should support aspiring and upcoming artistes to ensure the industry's growth locally and internationally. The fashion designer made this revelation during an online interview from her Durban base early this morning.
After a five year hiatus due in part to an interruption by the Ebola epidemic, the 3rd Annual Sierra Leone New York pageant returned to the Bronx Museum Sunday as a big hit. For most of the 200 participants who patronized and celebrated the event, the celebration was more so for the revival of a platform that showcases Sierra Leone culture and history than the pageant itself. Spearheaded by the Union of Sierra Leonean Organizations in New York, the pageant brought together participants from Delaware, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania as well as different Sierra Leonean professional organizations and social clubs to what organizers say is to reconnect them to their roots
To improve the quality of the Miss Zimbabwe Contest, new licensees to host the preliminaries to the contest will be appointed worldwide. Over the last few years, the Miss Zimbabwe Trust has been looking for ways to improve the quality of the contest. One of the ways it has sought to do this is to improve the quality of the contestants and the regional contests that feed into the main contest. As part of this focus on improvement, the way preliminary shows in Zimbabwe and abroad are managed will be improved. These contests are to be more focused on promoting the contestants and Zimbabwe. In a press briefing, the founder of the Miss Zimbabwe Trust, Crispen Sachikonye, who has been in strategic discussions with various stakeholders, said that new licensees will be appointed for various regions. He said that the identification of licensees was now at an advanced stage with for example, Zimbabwe Fashion Showcase being selected as a licensee for Miss Zimbabwe UK.
It was a watershed moment for Brooklyn based South African designer, Phumelele Kunene. Phumelele, the only African out of 18 designers who made their New York Fashion Week debut on Friday, September 11 packed the Punto Space in Manhattan to introduce her Spring/Summer 2016 Collections. The dresses presented by 14 absolutely gorgeous models ranges from jumpsuits to Kimono dresses.
Two Zimbabweans will this weekend take part in the African Fashion Week London (AFWL), an event created by Ronke Ademiluyi and is Europe's largest catwalk event of African and African-inspired design. The main purpose of the event is to increase the visibility and awareness of designers by providing them with an affordable global showcasing platform.