BY AGATHA CHUMA fashion designer Reason Chiyangwa has challenged clothing retailers to market African wear in their shops to help promote local culture and talent.
In a quest to engage designers and clothing retailers, Chiyangwa is hosting a Vintage Africa Fashion Show dubbed Bringing African Fashion to the World on Saturday next week in Harare.
Speaking to NewsDay Life & Style, he said: “The fashion show event is meant to share ideas with both designers and retailers on ways to design and market our local culture through clothing and it is going to be free.
“We will be showcasing designs on African attires for different occasions from vintage, formal, traditional and wedding outfits. We want our local boutiques to sell African attires tailor-made from Zimbabwe. That is the main reason why we are encouraging all of them to attend the event so that as designers we also share trending designs that can do good on the market. Nowadays people prefer Western clothing, but we are there to modernise our traditional outfits moving along with time.”
Chiyangwa, founder of Chico Designs, embarked on the chalk and machine journey seven years ago and has been designing non-stop. He attended the Style Icon Zimbabwe Awards at the Harare International Conference Centre in February where he displayed his designs. He has also dressed organisers, models and artists for the Mister and Miss Golden Pageant 2022, as well as guests for Mr Teen Zimbabwe 2022. He dominated the Sankara Fashion Week in May with his leather designs as well.
“I take pride in my culture and that is why I do my best when making the designs. Practice makes perfect and one has to sew according to their abilities because this helps in customer loyalty. Also, fashion changes every day hence designers need to be versatile and produce designs that are trending with fashion,” he added.
He is set to exhibit his designs at the Malawi Runway Fashion Show next month where he will be displaying Zimbabwe cultural wear.
“Just by seeing my designs on social media, the Runway Fashion Show invited me to be part of the event and I feel so honoured to have received such recognition,” he added.
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