Fashion design his ‘energy drink’, says successful Luyolo Dlikilili
When naming some of the Eastern Cape’s top fashion designers, Luyolo Dlikilili does not necessarily come to mind.
This is despite the award-winning Komani-born and -based creator of Bau Instyle having been in the game for almost two decades — and still going strong.
Dlikilili pursued a diploma in fashion at Buffalo City College, later completing it at the former PE Technikon.
In 2015, he studied shoe design in China.
Dlikilili said he discovered his talent in high school.
“I am creative, I do drawing, painting, poetry and grew up doing them, and did art as a subject at school.
“But I decided to study fashion. Hence I describe myself as a creative.
“I started sketching while in high school, doing sketches for matric and that is when I discovered I was really good at what I was doing.
“I had my own tailor in high school, that’s how fascinated I was with fashion.”
The 37-year-old said fashion and art were an “addiction” for him.
“It is more like my energy drink, it hypes me up, when I cut a fabric, I start to think of something, even if I was tired, the tiredness disappears, I look forward to creating something new.”
One of the best things about his job was there were no rules.
“You use what you have to create something that will be loved by clients.
“The nice thing about it is that it is a creative industry, there are no boundaries, unlike other professions.”
In 2009, he decided to establish his own brand.
“I am still dealing with oneon-one clients and mostly designing clothes and sometimes shoes.
“I design the clothes digitally, buy fabric, cut and sew my own clothing and brand them,” he said.
Dlikilili said while establishing his business, he had received funding for some of his sewing machines, as well as financial assistance from his mother.
He said after pursuing his shoe design qualification, he had worked with SETA as an accredited fashion designer and as an adjudicator for Walter Sisulu University’s fashion show.
He is among the first fashion designers to showcase their designs at the Berlin November when it began eights years ago and was chosen among the five Eastern Cape designers who will showcase their garments again at the 2022 event.
“I have won two awards as the best designer in the Eastern Cape, in 2018 and 2022,” he said.
As an entrepreneur, he said one of the challenges he had faced was limited knowledge on how to run a business.
“It is very difficult to start a business without any knowledge.
“You establish the business not having much knowledge about selling but only designing and sewing clothes, there is a lot you need to understand including the business side.”
Dlikilili said fashion designers needed to be taught about the business side of the industry to succeed.
He added there was also a lack of funding available to support entrepreneurs in the industry.
“We are told there is funding for designers and whenever you apply, we are told they do not have money and black businesses suffer,” he said.