Empire Fashion Week to stage upcoming designers
WeekendLife
The upcoming Empire Fashion Week slated to take place between 26-28 April at Gaborone International Convention Centre (GICC), will this year stage local upcoming designers and sell their crafts as a way of empowering them.
Empire Fashion Week is an event run and organized by a local talent stable organisation that houses fashion, modeling and photography in Botswana. The company which has just turned five years in the fashion industry has been doing exceptionally well in grooming and grounding local models and designers. In an interview with WeekendLife, Founder of Empire, Letlhogonolo Brian Dintwe explained why they have staged upcoming designers especially students from Limkokwing.
“As you see from the lineup of designers we have both upcoming and established designers. Currently a lot of our upcoming designers are from Limkokwing University. They are studying fashion and creating such a platform for them to be able to showcase their clothes will help open doors and also activate their goals,” he highlighted. Not only will the Empire Fashion Week feature upcoming designers, it has also engaged several young people who will be actively involved in actualizing the event.
“We found it fitting to engage a lot of youth as this fashion week is a youth initiative. The majority of our sponsors are youth owned businesses like, Bk Proctor collection ‘shoe brand’ which is owned by Bk Proctor, and local eye wear brand Dehandz. Our brand strategy is done by Arnold Nagafela,” Dintwe explained. Dintwe said hosting a fashion week was a step to cover the gap which has been in the industry for the past few years.
“This year our company turned 5 years. Last year we had an amazing turnout at the final runway fashion show at Sky Lounge. This is when we saw the need to push our limits and levels by hosting an Empire Fashion Week,” he added. The fashion week will feature 23 designers. These include Agora suits, Artcappella, Afro pink and Saint Lazarus just to name a few. The official launch will focus on art and fashion exhibition. “Day one (Friday 27th April) of the fashion show will feature designers who make clothes that are ready to wear. The target markets are the corporates,” he explained.
On the third day of the fashion week there will be more for the youth, as the fashion will be more about the current trends and styles that are in season. “The fashion week is going to be different in the sense that, it's more of a youth initiative and production. I have approached more youth owned business to be part of this fashion week to show that as an industry we can unite, and have a local production to the same standards as Mercedes fashion week, “he added.
To promote these designers, there will be mall activations to promote their work. Furthermore, their work will be documented as a way to show people what to expect. “This year, we have taken in teen models under our wing to help grow and nurture them from a young age,” he explained.
Dintwe, however, acknowledges the growth of the fashion industry. “The industry has grown but the fact that we as creatives don't support on another, but instead see each other as competition make it hard to gauge the growth. The majority of the people who attend events are friends and family as compared to creatives,” he lamented.
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