Phenomenal Women In The Fashion Business
Phenomenal, extraordinary, outstanding and unusually great
are some of the words I can use to describe all the women on this list. Still
in the spirit of celebrating women as it is Women's Month, I have decided to
put together a list of women I deem as exceptional in the fashion business.
Coco Chanel
Mademoiselle Gabrielle "Coco" Bonheur Chanel is, to date, the only fashion designer to have appeared on Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people of the 20th
century. Even though she passed away in
January 1971 at the age of 87, she is one classic example of phenomenal, as her
name lives on to this day. Coco started her fashion business at the age of 30
by opening a fashion boutique which specialized in clothing, hats, fragrance
and accessories. Her iconic Chanel No 5 fragrance later
became the cornerstone of her business. Towards the later years of her life,
Chanel worked with Karl Largerfield who is still the head designer and creative
director for the Chanel Fashion House. During an era of corsets and long
uncomfortable dresses, Chanel resisted conformity and gave style and comfort a
new meaning. Her rebellion resulted in her giving us yet more iconic items such
as: the Chanel suit, the little black dress, the Chanel bag and the classic use
of white pearls. To this day, Chanel is a high fashion brand that may outlive a
lot of us.
Dr Precious
Moloi-Motsepe
Aptly pictured
in the iconic Chanel pearls, Dr Precious Moloi-Motsepe is the brains behind and
Executive Chairperson of Africa Fashion International. Africa Fashion
International (AFI) is a company that promotes fashion designers (from all over
Africa) and enterprise development in the fashion industry. Dr Moloi-Motsepe, a
qualified medical doctor with about 20 years as a General Practitioner;
converted her love and talent for medicine into a talent for nurturing young
fashion innovators. Through her great work, many a fashion designers have had a
chance to showcase their works at the bi-annual Africa Fashion Week and also
through a number of fashion weeks all over the world. As a woman married to one
of Africa's wealthiest men, Patrice Motsepe, Dr Precious Moloi-Motsepe could
have easily given up on her own dreams but she chose to follow them by
transforming the fashion retail industry in Africa and she is doing an amazing
job at it.
Khanyi Dhlomo
Khanyi Dhlomo
has won every business woman accolade imaginable, been featured on almost all
Forbes Magazine Lists that include anything to do with African women under 40,
young millionaire African business women and anything inspirational and
African. Khanyi is anything but ordinary. She has been setting ground-breaking
and unprecedented records from the moment she was employed at the age of 20
years, as the first black newscaster for SABC 1. At the mere age of 22 she was
appointed as True Love Magazine's Editor and she managed to literally double
the magazine's circulation within a year of being Editor. Armed with an MBA
from Harvard Business School, it came as no surprise when she founded the
successful media house, Ndalo Media which gives us magazines such as Destiny
and Destiny Man. In 2010 she was selected
as a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. With her recent fashion business
venture, the launch of her high fashion retail boutique, Luminance, it is
without a shadow of doubt that Khanyi Dhlomo is a phenomenal woman in both
fashion and business.
All
The Women In The Swazi Crafts Market
It may not be fashion in the truest sense of the word but art
and fashion intertwine in a lot of ways. I was very fortunate to find out some
of the stories of the amazing Swazi women who are in arts, craft and handcraft.
These are the women who are the breadwinners of their families, the women who
take their children to school, feed and clothe them daily, save up (from their
meagre earnings) and building houses that shelter their families. It is beyond
my comprehension how these women do it. I am talking about the women who make tilulu, the women who make all sorts of
beaded work, the women who rent market spaces along the sides of the road to
sell their craft. Those are the women who make me realise that nothing in this
life ever defeats a woman on a mission and I salute them!
To make
use of Maya Angelou's words in her poem "Phenomenal Woman", she says "I am a woman phenomenally. Phenomenal
woman, that's me. Now you understand just why my head's not bowed. I don't
shout or jump about or have to talk real loud. When you see me passing, it
ought to make you proud."
This is
for all the amazing women who silently walk their paths and loudly inspire us
all through their great work and undying spirit despite all the daily
challenges that come with being a woman. I know that all the women in my life
are not in fashion but they are all phenomenal and they greatly inspire me and
give me strength. Who are some of the women you deem phenomenal in your
personal life?
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Written By: Koko
Shabangu
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