Greetings! hope you are well today; it has been a rather hectic week in the Zambian fashion circles with two quite significant launches.
First was the Miss Zambia activation cocktail, which signified the kick-starting of the Miss Zambia Jubilee auditions.
The event was held at Mika Hotel and had the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Arts and Tourism Stephen Mwansa as well as National Arts Council chairperson Mulenga Kapwepwe.
Stephen Mwansa reiterated the Government’s support towards entertainment and fashion, which in my opinion is a great thing.
You see when Government is in support of such projects, creativity is increased and that is what Zambia needs right now for its fashion designers.
Then you had Kapwepwe at the event, which in itself is already a significant nod from the Governing body of all arts in the country.
Lets take a moment though and really talk of how great she always looks in the Head wraps (Chiduku).
She is the epitome of elegance and style and is I think one of the avid supporters of Zambian Fashion even on a personal level.
Make no bones about it fashion is an art and our designers deserve the highest respect for daring to make clothes especially in a country with cheap second hand and Chinese clothing.
Pageants and red carpet events are always a good forum for fashion designers to highlight their work.
Sadly, most designers do not take advantage of this opportunity. In other countries like South Africa, Nigeria, USA, and India, designers will offer their clothes for an artiste, actor, musician, or model to wear so that they can talk about their designs.
Would we have known about Gucci, Givenchy, Chanel or Dolce and Gabbana if it wasn’t for artistes extolling them or wearing their designs on the red carpet.
In Zambia, this has still to let on, yet it is great way for advertising.
Pageants are highly followed and Miss Zambia is the ambassador of the nation, whoever wins will get to represent Zambia at the Miss World.
The Miss World pageant always has a number of events lined up leading to the main finale and the organisers need to take advantage of this by ensuring that Zambians design all the outfits she wears.
That is bikinis, shoes, clothes all must be designed by Zambian and trust me we do have a lot of great designers in this country.
Then on Thursday I had the the pleasure of attending the launch of Vala Design house a store featuring Zambian designers.
Phew! it has been a busy week for me, but fun nonetheless because like most women I love playing dress up.
The couture store is the brainchild of Mu Mudenda who had the ingenuis idea of assembling Zambia’s top designers in one shop., being Zambia’s first concept store, selling the best of Zambian ready-to-wear & accessories. Designers featured in VALA include Kutowa Designs, Kamanga Wear, Ensoko, Chitenge life, Nada, Free Woman, among others.
Those who have been to South Africa and even just fashion pundits know about Young Designers Emporium (YDE) a glam shop, which features South African designers.
Many designers have studios where they do their work and show case their couture but quite honestly at times it is hard to find where they are situated or even to visit their studios.
Case in point if you have an emergency date, you might want to rock Zambian and head to a designers shop.
So you find pants you like but perhaps no particular top that suits your style so you have to travel half way across town to another design am guessing you get the picture right now.
That’s why Vala is a great idea and opportunity for local designers.
Her shop set up is such that her mannequins wear combinations of different designers.
Generally, I believe that Zambian fashion is on the rise and should be supported by Zambians.
Its our 50th Jubilee anniversary and how else do we prove how proud we are of our Zambian heritage if not by wearing local designers.
Well that is it for this week, lets chat some more in my divadiarys@gmail.com mailbox as well as on my blog divadiarys.blogspot.com.
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