Young fashion designers strut their stuff

Fourteen young finalists have been selected from 450 entries countrywide for the 14th staging of the awards that is taking in Pretoria. The event began on 14 May and will end on this Saturday, 17 May.

The emerging creatives' stylish fashion collections - inspired by the theme Youth brands culture - a simple solution for success will be showcased at the Food Court of the Menlyn Shopping Centre in Pretoria on Saturday, 17 May at noon. Entrance is free.

That evening the Vukani Awards winners will be announced at a gala dinner, attended by inspirational fashion figures from South Africa and the rest of the continent.

Celebrities who will attend the awards evening will include Angolan Jose Rui Lope, who has taken part in numerous fashion shows such as the 2007 Mozambique Fashion Week and the 2008 Luanda Fashion Week; ex-Miss Nigeria Joan Okorodudu, a political science graduate of Boston University who manages Nigeria's Next Super Model competition and owns the House of J'ola label; and Seneo Moji, a young Motswana designer who studied fashion design at Lynn University in the USA then started her own highly successful AMIEL clothing line.

“The awards provide a platform for the young designers to showcase their talents,” says South African Fashion Designers Agency Executive President Sonwabile Ndamase, who founded the awards with the encouragement of his most famous client, Nelson Mandela, who wears his iconic shirts.

He says the awards have been a valuable platform for previous winners who have gone on to designing outfits for SABC presenters, set up their own studios, travel abroad and achieve success in related fields such as fashion journalism.

Six of the young finalists are based in Gauteng, four from the Western Cape and one each from the Eastern Cape, KZN, Free State and North West.