Gepardissima ornates Soweto Fashion Week

The show will feature a surprise opening ceremony, with more than 15 designers throughout the three days and ends on a high as one designer will walk away with a design and construction bursary from InScape Design College.

One truth holds for most of the designers; the South African fashion industry is tough to crack with minimal resources. Most of these designers have had to do with minimal equipment and an almost zero budgets in the hope of growing internationally one day. Support has come through from different people for these designers. InScape Design has chosen to give away a half bursary worth R11 500 to one of the designers for a Design and Construction course. Another major contributor is luxury jewellery creator, Gepardissima.

An eclectic and sophisticated style

Gepardissima, is a proudly South African young luxury jewellery company whose local jewellery creations are inspired by South Africa's rich diversity and multitude of urban styles. "The strong, clear colours and vivid designs of our jewellery reflect the powerful way of life here," say owners Jutta and Harald Sitta. "Our 24 different creation lines show many different colours. Every piece is hand made, unique and will never be repeated."

Gepardissima's style is an eclectic and sophisticated crossover of classic European taste intertwined with the vibrant style of Egoli. Used elements are precious stones, coral, shells, pearls, and other selected elegant materials like Murano glass or Swarovski crystal elements. Even diamonds and other noble stones may be incorporated according to request. The various creation lines are specially named according to their components and colours like "LadyLeopard' or "EternalEgoli".

The vision at the end of the show and all the future ones is to see the designers grow from their current level to a higher one. "We understand how hard it is to survive in the arts industry without a huge capital outlay, but we have faith that one day these designers will showcase on international platforms without having to worry about resources, especially financially," explains the founder of the show, Stephen Manzini.