East Cape design students excel despite Covid

Eastern Cape fashion designers may have missed the chance to rock the runway with their designs due to Covid-19, but that has not stopped them from expressing their creativity.

Nelson Mandela University fashion design lecturer Mieke Janse van Rensburg said the honours class of 2020 had excelled despite the odds.

“It breaks my heart because you are so excited for your postgraduate course, and unfortunately due to Covid-19 they missed out on a lot,” Janse van Rensburg said.

Makhanda’s Abby Vos, East London’s Pumelela Mlenze and PE’s Ariana Patsalos were the first fashion design cohort of the university’s new Bachelor of Visual Arts (honours), which has replaced the B Tech in fashion design.

Their course was disrupted and delayed due to the pandemic but they are still on track to graduate this year.

“Fashion is the strongest tool we have to use for personal expression,” Vos said.

Janse van Rensburg praised the student innovation: “Ariana’s collection was absolutely gorgeous, she has a very distinctive style and it was quite eye-catching,” she said.

“I was really excited to see their work and though Pumelela, for example, was not able to do a professional photo shoot, his work was breathtaking.”

Janse van Rensburg said where Patsalos had dived into heritage, Vos and Mlenze both played with gender identity.

“My honours range tackled the politics of dress and nonbinary menswear,” Qonze (King Willam’s Town) born Mlenze said.

He said he looked at masculinity through a “feminine” lens.

“I used fabrics, silhouettes and trims typically assigned to womenswear, while keeping the traditional aspects of tailored menswear and a socially approved men ’ s colour palette.

“The aim of this range is to serve as social commentary.”

Vos designed a corporate branded fashion collection that addressed gender stereotypes.

“Unfortunately society and past traditional views have confined individuality and limited the use of self-expression,” Vos said.

“The white-collar corporate workplace is a place where employees and employers can appropriately present the company and themselves through the uniforms they are assigned to wear.

“Creating a catalogue of gender-neutral garments allows employees to decide their own uniform they feel comfortable in and not restricted.”