BY SHARON SIBINDI “YOU choose your friends by their character and your socks by their colour.” Gary Oldman may well have been referring to Simbarashe Mupandi, a Zimbabwean based in the United States, who designs eye-catching socks.
The imaginative colours caught the eye of a Filipino fashion designer — John Ablaza and a great friendship between the two that has spawned collaboration for design sprang up.
So immaculate are the patterns that even famous personalities like South Africa-based Zimbabwean model Tino Chinyani, Thandeka Zulu (MaZulu) from Uzalo and model Maria Mikaylah Ross have been spotted on social media proudly rocking a pair.
The multi-talented Mupandi, is an architect, visual artist, and fashion model. A rather controversial anecdote by H. L. Mencken which goes: “Without a doubt there are women who would vote intelligently. There are also men who knit socks beautifully,” may illustrate how rare it is to find a man who excels at designing socks.
Standard Style reporter caught up with Mupandi and Ablaza who shared more their collaboration in the SMC X John Ablaza project.
“I love contemporary design and traditional African arts and crafts. During my stay in South Africa, I was exposed to a wide range of traditional arts and crafts which are celebrated in that country,” Mupandi told Standard Style
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“I decided to come up with an idea that will utilize all of my expertise in fashion, architecture, and visual arts and that became the birth of the African Print socks label SMC Collection—SMC (Style Merchant Collection).
“It consists of African Art and Culture wearable art pieces! SMC Socks are for sophisticated individuals who are not afraid of standing art and being a moving art canvas. I envisaged a product that a person can proudly wear daily, a conversation starter, and a wearable art piece.”
He said socks are basic items that people wear daily and adorning them with meaningful art and design meant that the product will give the wearer a sense of pride in their culture.
“I curated the experience that a person will feel when they are buying the socks for wearing or gifting,” Mupandi said.
“The socks project allowed me to interact with a wide range of people I would not have had a chance to interact with within my architecture field and in the modelling industry during the pandemic.
“The rewarding part of the project was the happiness and feedback I always get from the customers after they wear their socks or gifted them and this inspired me to expand my range from Ndebele, Zulu, and Xhosa to include my tribe (Shona).
“Everyone was celebrating their heritage through the socks I designed but other Zimbabweans and myself were left out of that experience and I decided to work on a range for Shona culture.”
He said so far he had an opportunity to work with the famous actress and musician Thandeka Zulu (MaZulu) who is known for her previous role in the South African telenovela Uzalo.
“The collaboration with her drove me to take this project very serious because I was now working with known figures. It gave the brand exposure and other celebrities started to join the trend. We had the opportunity for our socks to be worn by the award winning pianist Ndunduzo Makhathini. The famous DJ Euphonik owns a collection of the range and the conversations i had with him over the time made me to realise how big this project can be with the right backing.
“I also worked on collaboration with Derrick Mhlongo to assist with the launch of the underwear range but the project did not go forward due to lack of funding. I didn’t qualify for assistance from the SA government since I am not a citizen.
“We have a branch in UK as well which is led by my long-time friend Tapiwa Zimunya who is a PhD student that side. It was also beautiful to work with Tino Chinyani . I chose him to be my first model I was more comfortable to work with him since he is from Zimbabwe like me and thought he would be the right person to represent what the brand aims to be. I’m sure the pictures reflect that. I hope to work with him again in the future,” added Mupandi.
He has always wanted to design since childhood and figured out that architecture was a career that was capable of giving him that creative freedom and the field is versatile.
“It taps into other creative fields. This whole range celebrates the Zimbabwean Heritage and consists of Xhosa, Shona, and Ndebele prints. I am looking forward to attending some of the upcoming shows. I am unable to attend the June 4 show due to a clash in my schedule,” Mupandi said.
“Working with John Ablaza is an inspiring and widely experienced designer whom I had confidence will be able to tackle this project successfully. We were supposed to showcase our collection earlier this year, but everything was pushed back due to the pandemic.
“John has been amazing to work with and I hope to learn a lot from this whole process. I love his work I am looking forward to modelling for some of his high fashion couture shows in the future.
“I am very proud and grateful for this opportunity that John has afforded me and my country to showcase our creativity. I am advocating for Zimbabweans to be known for their design acumen and creative and vibrant culture.”
Ablaza said he came up with the idea to collaborate with Simba /SMC during the Covid pandemic.
“This somewhat gave me hope that you can still do something worthy despite the sad situation. Simba was a part of my first mentorship program held in Harare, Zimbabwe in 2016 organised by the United States Embassy in Harare,” Ablaza said.
“I’m hoping that the project will be a sustainable one as socks, I believe are a necessity and part of people’s day to day lives. I had high hopes that this collaboration will prosper and SMC X John Ablaza will be able to develop unique and comfortable socks designs One exciting concept we had in mind is eco inspired designs to show our support for environmental protection. Simba is very talented and full of ideas and have a good work ethics and I am looking forward to have long time collaboration with him.”
He said his goal was to make Zimbabwe products known to the world.
“I have showcased the works of several of my mentored designers in my shows in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Toronto, Winnipeg and Calgary and soon in Paris and Milan,” said Ablaza..
“I believe this opportunity, gave the designers a good premium in the brand they’re representing. I will continue working to open doors of opportunities for them until they finally make their first steps towards the international fashion arena.
“I’m hoping to be back in Zimbabwe in July and August to update designers and artisans with more ideas and do another set of seminar/worship for aspiring designers and artisans.”