DESIGNING HER DESTINY
Young designer targets the top
Having just turned 21, up and coming fashion designer, Kabo Selaledi, has the world at the end of her long, talented fingertips.
The stylish young beauty has a natural flair for fashion and is determined to establish herself as a leading player in the ultra-competitive industry.
If the early success of her business - Chanaka Clothing Designs - is anything to go by, she is well on her way to achieving this dream.
Set up last May and running out of Selaledi’s Molepolole home at Lekgwapheng ward, the enterprise is fast becoming the go-to place for youth in the area seeking to stand out in the style stakes.
Selaledi creates unique, showstopping outfits that ooze glamour and sophistication. Best of all, her clothes are affordable and do not hit customers’ pockets too hard.
For the Metsimotlhabe-born lass, starting her own business was the natural next step in an obsession that began at childhood.
“My love for designing started when I was very young. I used to make dresses for dolls and there was never a routine on how I made them as I was still a child. As young as I was, my mother, Fatima Selaledi, saw the driven passion in me and started supporting me from that time, which was when I knew that designing was destiny,” she explains in a recent interview with Voice Money.
Although she specialises in women’s clothing, Selaledi notes this is primarily because females make up the bulk of her clientele.
“I mostly design dresses, trousers and blouses for the ladies as they come each and every day for my designs as they are unique. However, I can also designs clothes for men but they rarely come hence I do not normally have their clothes readymade,” says Selaledi, adding she has also studied design to further boost her natural, God-given talent for he craft.
“I did Fashion & Fabrics as a subject in high school. Now I hold two certificates: Trade Test Certificate and Craft Certificate in Designing, Cutting and Tailoring, both acquired in Zambia back 2018 and 2019 respectively.”
Displaying the unshakeable self-belief of youth, Selaledi says she does not fear competition as her clothes are unlike any other.
“My designs are unique thus I am confident of having my own customers. I want to penetrate the international market and even though there are great fashion designers out here, I believe I can reach my ultimate goal one day!”
As with most small enterprises across the world, Chanaka Clothing Designs has not escaped the pandemic.
“Covid-19 has affected my entity. I had wanted extra machines from the Youth Development Fund (YDF) as I wanted to expand and bring in a few employees but it was not to be. I am still using one machine and I put most of my designs on my Facebook page ‘Chanaka’, for customers to appreciate,” continues Selaledi, whom despite the setback, has big plans for her business, including expanding it into a factory.
“I want to see my company growing, and having employees as job creation is one key thing to revive the economy of the country,” concludes the ambitious woman whose passion for fashion burns as bright now as it did as a child playing dress-up with her dolls.
Chanaka Clothing Designs is fast becoming the go-to place for youth in Molepolole seeking to stand out in the style stakes