The African Fashion International (AFI) Next Generation show at the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Cape Town event was the platform for Pretoria-based young designer Tuelo Nguyuza to showcase his third range.
Nguyuza, 30, who has worked for 10 years in the fashion industry, went through the AFI Fastrack development programme and won the 2014 AFI Young Designer of the Year award and showcased his range Collectiv at the weekend.
The Collectiv range consisted of dreamy, flowing, ready-to-wear creations for women with fuschia, green and white colours.
The collection was complemented by Nguyuza’s mentor, Khothatso Tsotesti’s Tsotesti KL range.
Tsotesti’s range – his fifth – continued the dreamy feel of Nguyuza’s range, with strong mustard yellow outfits.
Nguyuza, who was inspired by silhouettes, said he “wanted to create a line that creates wonderful creations for women”.
He said it was an achievement showcasing his third range, made possible by winning the AFI Fastrack competition.
“I hope more young designers will consider entering the competition,” he said.
“You get exposed to so many things and learn many new things that you wouldn’t otherwise learn,” he said.
This aspect of the programme and the New Generation platform, he said, “is a nice channel for young designers”.
“It allowed me to gauge where I wanted to be.”
The programme also helped him to understand his target market.
Tsotesti, who also lectures at the Tshwane University of Technology, was Nguyuza’s mentor throughout the Fastrack programme.
He said it was exciting to see his protégé becoming successful as he once was on the same platform.
“My range is essentially an extension of Tuelo’s range and supporting it. It’s all about being ready-to-wear, detailed and sophistication,” he said.
Tsotesti, looking towards the future of young African designers, said the most important thing for young, upcoming designers was to place emphasis on quality.
“As designers we sometimes forget about quality. My advice to young designers is to forget about the glitz and glamour and focus on building their craft.” – African News Agency