2013 has been a year full of fashion events for me. I enjoyed getting to see all the great talent we have in Zambia and meeting other people who are interested in fashion. There is still a lot of growing to be done in the Zambian fashion industry especially when it comes to fashion shows and I thought I'd end the year with some fashion reviews of shows I attended in the last half of this year:) Organizers please take notes!
Zambia Fashion Week 2013
I was fortunate enough to attend the grand finale of this year's Zambia Fashion Week. This was my second time at this event; I attended last year's show as well which you can check out here.
Social Media Socialites
This year, the Zambia fashion Week team went all out and invited lots of fashion bloggers, social media personalities and local celebrities to the event. This was such a great idea as it brought a fashionable bunch of people together and of course, the added advantage of a social media buzz. These fashionista's tweeted, facebooked and blogged, bringing pizazz and publicity to the event.
Red Carpet
Zambia Fashion Week introduced a red carpet for guests to take a picture as they walked in. Super creative! The popular fashion blogging trio known as The Mafshio girls manned the red carpet and asked guests about their outfits and it felt very E! Red Carpet.
The Bad
Location, location, location!
The venue was American Dome and the biggest issue I had with this place was the heat! There was absolutely no air conditioning facility and as this was in the middle of a hot African summer, we literary poured of sweat!
Music
Another huge problem I have noticed with lots of fashion shows I've attended in Lusaka is that there is very little thought put in with the selection of music, let alone the person who handles the music! I believe music should express the theme that you're trying to bring about with your collection, and the music should complement not distract or overshadow the collection on the runway. The selection of music was so discorded during this fashion show and to make it worse, the dj played the music so loud that it was distressing. At one point I walked over to the dj’s booth tell him to turn it down and found two other guests already complaining to him.
Models
To me Zambian Fashion Week should be the biggest fashion event of the year, bringing the best talent from across the country.So not only did I expect to see groundbreaking designs I also expected to see professional models strutting their stuff on the runway. Now I don't know the history of the models who modelled for Zambia Fashion Week but some of them did not seem like professional models. There was a girl who literally hobbled across the red carpet and had everybody amused, another model had a protruding belly that made me think she might have been pregnant. Now I am not one to put other women down and we can't all be size zero models but if you're going to be a model, that’s the whole point. You should have a nicely toned body and you should be able to dazzle us when you take on the runway. It's a superficial world yes, but that's what models get paid for. It just takes so much away from a fine piece of clothing when the wrong body shape wears it.
Empty Seats
This is something I find extremely annoying as a photographer. Front row seats are reserved for important people who hardly ever show up or just come in at the end of the show and through the show, the front rows are empty! This is bad for any show, fashion or not. I think there should be a rule that if VIP guests do not show up after the first 30 minutes of the show the seats should be given up. Imagine taking pictures of models walking up a runway with empty seats?
Fashion Police
Took a few pictures of some fashionable people I spotted at Fashion week, my favourite look was the lady in full on plaid! And my best friend killed it in yellow and teal:)
I went for a chic look, I wore plaid shorts, (I love shorts because my legs are currently my best feature, oh go away tummy flab) but I still wanted to look classy so I threw on a ruffled peach blouse and some pearls and a fab little vintage briefcase purse I got at the flea market ages ago, and finally some nude courts.
I highly recommend two great articles with reviews on Zambian fashion show's, visit Mazuba's blog Afrosocialite and see a review on fashion here and Lian's blog Through Mine Eyes with a great review on Yatatu collection launch by Kutowa Designs here.
Thank you for reading!
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