FOLLOWING rejection from the SA Fashion Week (SAFW) for a lack of experience and failing the qualifying criteria, two young designers decided to take matters into their own hands.
The two, Bongani Tambo, 25, and Esnerth Nkosi, 23, have established their own platform where they invite other designers to also showcase. They have gone a step further by launching the Retro Vintage Kolektion (RVK) Fashion Week which also showcases designers from the continent.
The organisers said they would deliberately target designers who would usually be rejected or did not have resources to show at big shows.
The biannual fashion week, which debuted in February at Church Square in Pretoria, is a three-day affair. The recent instalment started on Friday and ended on Sunday.
"We realised that there is immense talent out there that [needs to be] unearthed. Most designers are from underprivileged backgrounds, with no funds or experience to showcase their talent on huge platforms like SAFW. So we came up with the idea to have the underdogs put on the frontline," said RVK founder Tambo.
"Our initial inspiration was the elegance of retro fashion, and how timeless vintage clothes are. So in trying to find designers to bring on board, we wanted to see which designers could fuse retro and modern together."
Co-founder Nkosi said the response from inexperienced designers has been amazing.
"They really are world class," she said. The RVK Fashion Week showcased collections from 15 designers from across the continent.
One self-taught local designer, Zamaswazi Nkosi, a former amateur soccer player, said he realised a few years ago that he would rather follow fashion than soccer when he was unhappy with the bland men's fashion that he used to see in the shops.
To liven up his own wardrobe, he once chopped off his long pants to make a creative shorts and got interesting reviews when he took a material from a tablecloth and infused it in a jacket.
At RVK, he showed a men's fashion collection - under the label Zamaswazi Inventive Fashion - made of fitted jackets, asymmetrical jackets, and use of button details on jackets in greys and blacks that stood out on the ramp. His standout piece was a dashiki shirt embellished with gold spike
Some of the designers who showed up at RVK show at the weekend included Kamal Imidu from Nigeria, Ayabonga Owen from Cape Town and Suzannah Nyerere from Tanzania.
The platform is more accessible to upcoming designers who do not have to pay a fee to showcase their collections, unlike at bigger platforms as the founders have roped in sponsors on board. "The only qualifying criteria for a designer is to be good at what they do, be young, and in need of exposure," said Tambo.
Rejects show mettle - duo establish own fashion parade
FOLLOWING rejection from the SA Fashion Week (SAFW) for a lack of experience and failing the qualifying criteria, two young designers decided to take matters into their own hands.
The two, Bongani Tambo, 25, and Esnerth Nkosi, 23, have established their own platform where they invite other designers to also showcase. They have gone a step further by launching the Retro Vintage Kolektion (RVK) Fashion Week which also showcases designers from the continent.
The organisers said they would deliberately target designers who would usually be rejected or did not have resources to show at big shows.
The biannual fashion week, which debuted in February at Church Square in Pretoria, is a three-day affair. The recent instalment started on Friday and ended on Sunday.
"We realised that there is immense talent out there that [needs to be] unearthed. Most designers are from underprivileged backgrounds, with no funds or experience to showcase their talent on huge platforms like SAFW. So we came up with the idea to have the underdogs put on the frontline," said RVK founder Tambo.
"Our initial inspiration was the elegance of retro fashion, and how timeless vintage clothes are. So in trying to find designers to bring on board, we wanted to see which designers could fuse retro and modern together."
Co-founder Nkosi said the response from inexperienced designers has been amazing.
"They really are world class," she said. The RVK Fashion Week showcased collections from 15 designers from across the continent.
One self-taught local designer, Zamaswazi Nkosi, a former amateur soccer player, said he realised a few years ago that he would rather follow fashion than soccer when he was unhappy with the bland men's fashion that he used to see in the shops.
To liven up his own wardrobe, he once chopped off his long pants to make a creative shorts and got interesting reviews when he took a material from a tablecloth and infused it in a jacket.
At RVK, he showed a men's fashion collection - under the label Zamaswazi Inventive Fashion - made of fitted jackets, asymmetrical jackets, and use of button details on jackets in greys and blacks that stood out on the ramp. His standout piece was a dashiki shirt embellished with gold spike
Some of the designers who showed up at RVK show at the weekend included Kamal Imidu from Nigeria, Ayabonga Owen from Cape Town and Suzannah Nyerere from Tanzania.
The platform is more accessible to upcoming designers who do not have to pay a fee to showcase their collections, unlike at bigger platforms as the founders have roped in sponsors on board. "The only qualifying criteria for a designer is to be good at what they do, be young, and in need of exposure," said Tambo.
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