Two fashion events under Fame

Two major fashion events in Malawi that attract the crème de la crème of fashion connoisseur wannabes are confirmed to take place this year.

Garments in a range of colours, shapes and sizes as well as jewels, fascinators and all, will grace the stage as both local and international designers showcase the best of their tailored work, when Fashion Malawi Edition (Fame) returns in 2014 with its annual fashion event as well as a fashion week which will be launched as a different product.

Initially, Fame fashion week was scheduled to take place last summer.

However, organisers say they are now set for this year’s event which is scheduled for August.

“We are rebranding Fame and the fashion week will be launched under a new name and as a separate product from Fame. This means that we have two products per year. The fashion week and the fashion showcase what people have come to love as Fame, which is the platform to reveal new and mid-career designers and award the best designer and model.

“The fashion week is a sophisticated product and is for professionals only and will incorporate other elements of design – textiles, accessories and interior design. It is conceptualised with pure aesthetic appreciation for design in mind.

“People attending the fashion week will be coming from international fashion shows and buyers so this is a premium product and the best Malawi designers will be sharing the runway with well-established names so we expect our designers to deliver simply incredible collections,” said Fame founder Zilanie Nyundo.

Fame held two fashion events in March and September last year and sent two designers Yavinde and Lily Alfonso to exhibit in Nigeria but the fashion week did not materialise.

“There is an outdoor element to the fashion week. We chose to wait for the rainy season to pass because the November dates which we had planned, as we did in 2012, were too risky for weather clemency. But the good news is, we are back in August,” she said.

Obviously, the show is guaranteed to set new standards for Malawi’s developing fashion industry, moving it up the fashion ladder and closer to being on par with the rest of the craze world.

Considering how big the events are and being the first fashion week and of course the return of Fame, so much is going in just to have the best out of the event.

“We plan thoroughly and execute professionally; we are ahead because we had already done much work last year. Our national partnerships remain strong, year after year especially with Mapeto DWSM and our sponsors. The international relationships with Cape Town Fashion Council, World Fashion Forum, Nigeria Fashion and Design Week, among others will bring new exciting elements.

“The bounds of creativity are limitless. We are a team of multi-creatives and artists, dreaming with eyes wide open and in colour.

“We’re continuing what we started last year in our exclusive showcase of African designers last March with the African Movie Academy Awards and the City of Stars Festival UK-Malawi-Zambia fashion morning in September; exclusive, intimate and extraordinary,” said Nyundo, who is the beacon of Malawi’s growing fashion industry.

As always, the event will have international designers, who together with their local counterparts, will be announced in May.

The two events bring the number of big fashion events scheduled to take place in the country this year alone to three, as Malawi Fashion Week holds its second event in July.