Peter Matika, Senior Life Reporter
SOMETHING enchanting happened this year in the fashion industry.
The fledgling cult labels of the city’s underground fashion scene have grown, establishing their places as 2017’s must-see collections. For a long time, Bulawayo fashion shows or events have been a dreary schedule of all-too homogenous faces and innumerable street style bloggers — a truly boring scene for creative upstarts and young fashion obsessives looking for boundary-pushing statements.
As we enter 2017 today, all that seems to have been turned upside down, thanks to an extensive community of young, fearless upcoming labels, from all walks of life, where underground fashion is concerned the industry is about to turn around. These designers, with full-fledged visions of uncompromised imagination and a genuine commitment to diversity are ready to change the game. Sunday Life explored the inexplicable dimension of the underground fashion world, where lots of designers, young and old yearn to make a name for themselves.
There are three labels, however, that have truly skyrocketed in their ambitions and trajectories from last year. Fuelled by their abilities to retain the same honesty, passion and teamwork as they did when they all started out, just a few years ago, namely Clix Clothing, Ganu Clothing and White Cotton. Building momentum in 2016 and years past, there are independent labels like Shante Clothing joining the growing list of underground brands that hosted their first fashion shows off-schedule, challenging bigger fashion shows by way of hosting events at unconventional venues like churches and theatres.
“Indeed there are underground fashion designers. All glory be to God, if it wasn’t for him we would remain underground. This is our time to break through and be noticed as serious brands,” said Cleedon Lotriet who owns Clix Clothing. Levi Phiri, who has been in the industry for the past 20 years but made a rather chivalrous debut at the Ibumba i-fest fashion show last December, with his joint label Ganu with Nkanyeziyethu Malunga and Lincon Nyasaya, said as designers they were being subjected to the sidelines.
“There are some people that label themselves as designers but are just middle men. These people don’t know how to operate a sewing machine. We do all the dirty work and they get all the credit. This year we seek to make ourselves known and turn the tables around, while also taking the industry by storm,” he said.
Levi also said they would partner with other upcoming designers to hold fashion events and extravaganzas this year so that people get to know the faces behind various couture in the city.
His label mate Lincon said: “This time around we want to appeal to event organisers of fashion events to look for the guys on the ground and not these so called designers. At the end of the day we are subjected to pressure, as they come to us to design clothes at the last minute.”