Leandi Mulder, a Fashion Design student at the Durban University of Technology’s Fashion and Textiles Department, whose collection is made entirely of second hand fabrics, won the 2016 Emma Smith Art Scholarship award.

Currently doing her Batchelor of Technology (B-Tech) degree in Fashion, Mulder says she has always been passionate about fashion and clothing.

Mulder’s winning designs debuted at the 2016 annual DUT Fashion Show which was themed “After Earth”, earning her the Most Commercial Range on Show award. The theme tasked 38 third-year Fashion Design students to explore their own vision of our next world through their fashion collections. With this broad theme, students had to look at what their beliefs in fashion were and what they wished to portray to the outside world.

Mulder says she developed the concept for her range whilst living in Japan for two years. She says she was inspired by the Japanese essence of creativity, their simplicity and organic aesthetics.

“When people see the work that has gone into my designs and the concept behind it, they see it as something very innovative and inspirational”, she said.
Mulder said a lot of planning and preparation went into designing her concept. She said she worked on the range for an entire year; doing a lot of conceptionalising and research on the current state of the fashion industry.

“I wanted my concept to be something I really believed in,” she said.
Mulder said she is happy about winning the scholarship, adding that she feels like the scholarship will push her creativity to a different direction.

She will use the money she won as part of the award to travel to Japan to do an internship with a knitwear and textile designer.
– Sthabile Gwala
Pictured: Leandi Mulder, the latest winner of the Emma Smith Art Scholarship Award. The fashion collection also earned her the Most Commercial Range on Show award at the 2016 annual DUT Fashion Show.

Picture credit: Colourise Photography Studio

Models: Ice Models