IT’S BACK!!!
After a four-year hiatus, the country’s premier fashion showcase, Zimbabwe Fashion Week, is set to make a return this October, a month that is now internationally dubbed African Fashion Month.
The fashion showcase is the brainchild of United States-based Zimbabwean model-cum-entrepreneur, Priscilla Chigariro run under her Zimbabwe Fashion Week Trust.
Historically held in various locations around Harare, Chigariro said this year, the fashion showcase would be held in the majestic City of Victoria Falls.
She noted that besides the development of the fashion and textile industries, one of the major objectives of the fashion showcase was to play its part in the development of the tourism industry.
“Hosting the fashion week at the Victoria Falls will encourage and highlight the destination not only as a spectacular tourist destination for safari, but as the gateway to the growing visual arts and fashion industries in Zimbabwe,” Chigariro said.
“We have a lot in store this year as we make a return after such a long sabbatical. A robust development programme has been constructed which will run throughout the year helping rebuild the fashion industry from grassroots level.”
She added: “This year’s edition of the Zimbabwe Fashion Week will be the first without an event-specific theme. However, an elaborate story detailing the inspiration behind the event’s new and permanent logo will serve as an ongoing theme for the event, cultural preservation.
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“Being based in the United States, my stay here has opened a lot of doors for me in the fashion industry. Whereas the idea of fashion week had always been challenging to develop beyond the runway due to many constraints in the past.
“I am now in the thick of the Western fashion world and have access to multiple avenues to promote African designers from our region. Besides the runway shows which will for the second season to be produced by Andiswa Manxiwa, a South Africa (Johannesburg)-based runway show producer, whose accolades include production for Africa Fashion International’s Johannesburg and Cape Town fashion weeks.”
Zimbabwe Fashion Week director Marshall Mutsamwira said: “Zimbabwe Fashion Week’s return this year is a very special one especially with the main event taking place at one of the seven natural wonders of the World, Victoria Falls, it is definitely going to be one not to miss.
“Our main focus as the Zimbabwe Fashion Week team this year and beyond is to not only create memorable fashion events, but to actively work with key stakeholders in the industry to enable our fashion industry to contribute positively to our country’s gross domestic product.
“This will be through exports of our cultural heritage, diversity and creativity and offering platforms for young Zimbabweans to be able to actualise their creative vision and be competitive in the global marketplace.”
Since 2009, Zimbabwe Fashion Week has helped to advance the careers of local talents and celebrate the thriving fashion and retail community in Zimbabwe.
“Over the past one-and-a half decades, the Zimbabwe Fashion Week Trust, through it’s events and development offerings, Zimbabwe Fashion Week and Young Designer’s Programme has managed to celebrate the creativity of multiple fashion designers from around the world on its fashion runway shows,” Chigariro noted.
“We have also managed to advance young fashion designers’ careers by giving them the necessary skills to build their brands as well as giving them access to local, regional and international markets.”
One of the most notable success stories from previous editions of Zimbabwe Fashion Week is Ishmael Tsakatsa.
He is the founder and head designer for the brand Zargue’sia.
He first appeared on the fashion scene at the Zimbabwe Fashion Week in 2012, Young Designers Competition and went on to launch his brand Zargue’sia in 2013 at Zimbabwe Fashion Week, where he was nominated for the Emerging Designer of the Year Award.
He went on to be awarded the Zimbabwe Fashion Week Designer of the Year title at the fashion awards in September 2014.
In October 2021, Tsakatsa made history by becoming the first Zimbabwean designer to debut at Paris Fashion Week with his Stones of Fire Spring/Summer collection.
