A CAST member from Game of the Thrones and three South African designers are expected to grace the fifth edition of Zim-Fashion Week (ZFW) to flavour the event with international and regional celebrities.
Lynette Manzini
Priscilla Chigariro, founder and executive producer of Zim-Fashion, was not at liberty to release the name of the actor coming for the fashion week, but she disclosed the name of Thuli Sindi as one of the guest designers.
However, she said she would release the names of the other two designers on a later date.
ZFW gives exposure to both the local models and designers showcasing their skills and work.
The platform also assists local designers to market their products and talent to potential customers at a time the latter was competing with cheap and low quality imports.
Chigariro said to enhance accessibility to the show, it would take place at three venues in Harare unlike the usual three-day event at one location.
“This year, we decided to use different venues. Every single day will be at a different venue to include the entire city. We want to make sure everybody has access to all the different venues and also showcase our city as part of fashion week,” Chigariro said.
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Running under the theme “Afro-centrica”, Chigariro said: “Often we forget to celebrate who we are and where we come from, so as ZFW we are focusing on showcasing our culture through our different fabrics, textures and designs.”
Group of Creative, a South Africa-based organisation, will continue with organising the creative and technical aspects of the show, a role they assumed in time for last year’s edition.
About 30 local designers will be showcasing their work this year with the help of the models selected during a model casting at Pariah State, a partner of ZFW last Saturday.
Only 30 of the 100 models that turned up for casting will participate in the four-day long event.
The event will be a day longer than all the previous years because the award day will be a day on its own.
The quality of models that turned out for the casting impressed Group of Creative’s Jen Deiner and Zim-fashion week producer, despite many not meeting the minimum height requirement of 1,70m for female models and 1,80m for male models.
“From what we saw today, the model walk and look has improved from last year, but we had let down some models who did not meet the minimum height requirement because designers make clothes with specific height and body structure requirements,” Deiner said.
Simon Deiner, also from Group of Creative and the ZFW technical director and photographer, said people should expect more improvements this year.
“Last year was about getting the basics right over previous years. Now that we have created the blueprints of the event, this year we are working on improving the lighting, the stage and the ramp to the next level,” Deiner said.
ZFW was founded in 2009 by Chigariro, a Zimbabwean model based in South Africa, with the idea of creating a platform for local designers to showcase their designs to potential customers in a bid to promote the local fashion industry.
This year’s edition will run from August 28 to 31.
