Zambia Fashion Week Diaries (Tuesday)

After a successful first day, the bar was raised high for Tuesday's shows. Enos Malunga presented his collection of shiny satin eveningwear and casual attire, many of those outfits using neutral colours with a little chitenge action going on.

Malunga tends to take the more traditional route of design—the eveningwear line he showed us stuck to basic blacks and reds, with classy cocktail dresses and some romantic pieces suitable for the theatre or a very formal wedding. It would have been nice to see a little more experimentation with his designs as nothing really struck me as new and innovative. But if Malunga feels more comfortable with safe and traditional designs for formalwear and believes there to be the market for it in Zambia, then he is in the green.

Enos Malunga

Enos Malunga

Enos Malunga
Enos Malunga

It was difficult to find a theme to his designs—his sets, although the formal dresses were pretty and the casual wear was very down-to-earth and something the everyday woman could wear, were hard to find a focal point. Perhaps I just missed the message he was trying to communicate through his designs, but I found his work a little on the basic side and believe he could take more risk in experimenting with cuts, angles and patterns.

The evening show brought us Mary Kaira, a woman of little words when in the spotlight but extraordinary talent. Sticking to her traditional Zambian roots with bright chitenge fabric and crafting modern outfits for the style-conscious woman, Kaira was another highlight of the week by far. With three separate sets in accordance to style and colour, we saw originality including a black mini tube dress with a long teal-hued peacock tail sewn in back to maternity wear so chic that a mother will want to keep on producing offspring just to wear the fabulous frocks again.

Mary Kaira

Mary Kaira

Mary Kaira
Mary Kaira

Kaira's outfits were extravagant, simple, vibrant and classy all at different points in their sets. She knows how to flatter a woman's best features, with modern cuts mixed in with busy attention-drawing patterns and sleek and sophisticated casual wear that can do double time as a perfect outfit for a night out on the town. Her designs were fresh, inspiring, traditional and youthful as she clearly knows who her audience is and is not afraid to present her young, urban women clothes that any fashionista would vie for.