Durban University of Technology’s (DUT) Fashion and Textiles student, Ntsoaki Lesenyeho is still reeling in from the dazzling news of winning first place in the 2022 South African Fashion Week (SAFW) Student Competition, held at the Mall of Africa, Gauteng.
Aside from receiving R5 000 cash to develop her first collection, the budding designer enjoyed an unprecedented spotlight on all South African Fashion Week (SAFW) media channels as well as entry to all the shows at the SAFW Spring Summer collections.
Ntsoaki Leseneho
The SAFW Student Competition is only opened to final year fashion design students studying at any of the fashion colleges or universities in South Africa. The brief challenged the students to design a standard size 34 dress with no colour-white on white, that is wearable, marketable and sellable using calico or cotton. The dress also had to be for morning, afternoon and night with high design. The innovative design also had to feature a well thought out collar, sleeve, pocket, cuff or detail. Lastly, the garment had to show innovative pattern construction and be fashion forward.
Lesenyeho from Matatiele in the Northern part of the Eastern Cape Province could not contain her excitement, noting: “I still can’t believe that I won. I wasn’t expecting it, but I believed anyone who would have won deserved it because we all worked hard as designers, so I’m happy about it.”
She was inspired by textiles and how fabric can be manipulated to create textiles. The 22-year-old did face challenges during the creation process of her winning garment. “There was a point where I wanted to change my design because it was not coming out how it was supposed to. After winning the competition I learned that I can do anything that I want and that good things take time,” she added.
The designs submitted by the students were judged on design originality, a strong design language, creativity, innovation, practical application of sustainable principles, style and fit and designing a dress according to the brief.
Pictured: Lesenyeho’s winning fashion forward design. (Image by Electric Media SA).
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