HELLO, hope you had a great week. Today we profile a fashion designer who proves that sometimes one needs to take risks to find themselves.
If you attended the Zambia Fashion Week on the last day during the celebrity walk you probably saw Lonah Shawa saunter down the stage in a three piece ensemble that she unveiled one at a time to a lot of applause.
You probably also saw the gorgeous red suit Karen Nakawala wore, Chisoma Lombe, President and Creative designer at ChizO, a fashion house based in Lusaka, designed these outfits.
Chisoma is an affable person and she is talented to boot as well.
She credits her Christian faith with giving her the courage to leave her job to start ChizO.
“I did not start out designing high fashion; I actually used to design furniture and even slippers.
Then in November 2013, I bought a sewing machine and put it in my dining room, I frankly did not know what to do with it, so I just placed there and stared at it (she chuckles at this point).”
Then she employed two female tailors in December of that same year and that’s how ChizO started – she now has four tailors which is quite a fast growth.
“I am a business woman but I am always more excited when designing my clothes, when I first started out sometimes I would design an outfit and feel reluctant to let it go. ”
Letting go however is something she had to do when in 2014 she realised that she was practically eating, breathing and living fashion.
“I discovered that fashion never made me tired unlike my day job which I was slowly losing interest in. At the office I became more reactive than proactive and actually started mentoring a finance manager to take over from me.”
She says that despite all this she was still battling with fear;
“So I took a spiritual journey to really know whether this what I was meant to do, it took a lot of prayer and fasting for me to know what to do and to be at peace with my decision, and that’s how I left.” She reveals
Karen Nakawala , Director of Zambia Fashion Week then encouraged her to showcase at the Zimbabwe Fashion Week where she met the Director of Cape Town Fashion Council who invited her to showcase at the Brooklyn Fashion week in New York.
The event was exactly a week after the Zimbabwe Fashion Week and there was no way she could have found an American visa in that time.
She however didn’t let that deter her as she went on to showcase at the Zambia Fashion Week.
Her outfits are infused with colourful embroidery, which says, is because she likes to make bright, bold and unique outfits channelling the beauty of nature.
Chisoma describes her personal style as more 1970s esque glamour because she says that then people relied on classy simplicity.
She says that for many people reaching the creative pinnacle is not hard, but that Zambians rarely focus on the business side of passion.
So whats her vision for the next decade?
“I will be a fashion icon with stores in London, New York, Paris and Johannesburg, that’s how I see myself”.
She says: “People are like trains, moving on a road stressed and merely in motion working in jobs they don’t like, but whats the purpose of life if not to be fulfilled.”
Indeed What else is there to add to that advice except perhaps some fashion advice which she imparts by saying that when dressing up focus on what body part you want to expose or emphasise and find colours that go with your skin tone.
You can email Chisoma at chisoma2007@gmail.com .
That’s it for this week for any queries or style tips send me an email to divadiarys@gmail.com, to find old articles head over to divadiarys.blogspot.com and lets follow each other on twitter @Arushapot and don’t forget to like my page on facebook.
If you have an event or are just in need of style consultancy get in touch with meanwhile, stay beautifully healthy this week.