Zambia Fashion Week Diaries (Monday)

The Coca-Cola Zambia Fashion Week took over Alliance Française on Monday, October 20 with six days of action-packed shows featuring 13 local designers.

With shows twice a day, one during lunch-hour and another in the evening, fashion addicts were treated to a new designer each time. These designers, among the crème de la crème in the Zambian fashion industry displayed impressive quality, diversity and creativity in their designs, ranging from the traditional Zambian way of dress with a twist to haute couture meant for the most extreme of fashionistas.

Veronica Sampa was the first one up, presenting three sets of elegant and feminine outfits suitable for the everyday woman. Mixing in chitenge fabric in bold colours to spruce up neutral colours seemed to be a theme in many of her designs, which is a practical way of making both casual and office attire more fun and expressive.

Veronica Sampa

Veronica Sampa

Veronica Sampa
Veronica Sampa

Her designs are definitely geared for a more mature audience, but the bold colours and prints bring out a youthful and fresh vibe which show a woman's wardrobe never expires with age, it only shifts in creative direction.

The evening show brought us Fay Designs' principal designer Faith Mulanga Kabende, a woman who does not shy away from the fabulously extreme and colourfully outrageous. The type of lady who will be sporting any of Fay Designs' grandiose dresses is one who does not shy away from the spotlight and definitely loves being seen on a scene.

Faith Kabende, Fay Designs

Fay Designs
Fay Designs
Fay Designs

Kabende flirts with vintage-inspired patterns and designs in many of her romantic Victorian-style dresses. She does not shy away from any type of material; from crinoline to objects sewn in to the skirt, Kabende's attire clashes wonderfully with bold statements such as mixing bright yellow hues with chocolate in one skirt and beige for the bodice with feathers around the waist-line. Many discerning fashionable people say that mixing neutral colours with yellow is not safe but Kabende takes this to the next level and shows her audience that they should not shy away from colour clashing experimentation — clashing is not a negative thing (as she has proven).

Again with the Zambian flag theme seen in many of the designers' sets, Kabende took it back to the '80s and brought us both a fabulous prom-style dress, completely with crinoline and ribbon sewn around the bodice. Another eye-opener was the neon pink also '80s-inspired jacket matched with a tight black pencil skirt. Kabende seems balance between the Victorian era and 1980s' big dresses with big tops. She should continue her experimentation with the past as we are anxious to see what she'll bring out next.