Enica creating fashion storm
SA talent on international runways
Names like Naomi Campbell and Tyra Banks have often dominated fashion industry. But when it comes to local talents, more models are strutting out of SA streets onto the runways of Milan and London.
Enica Seshoka is one of those faces who have quickly made a name for themselves with designers from Burberry and Moncler.
But this was not always a career she had in mind, having experienced a lot of bullying for looking different to other kids.
While it may have had a knock on her confidence, it did not dim her desire to become the next best thing on international catwalks, something she shares with a shy humility.
“I’ve always loved modelling, even from a young age. It has always been a passion of mine,” says Seshoka. “It’s something I’ve loved since the days I used to enter pageants.”
Her career catapulted very quickly, affording her a number of gigs that seemed to be opening all the right doors, but the worst imaginable thing happened to Seshoka quite early on in her career – she fell pregnant.
“I was so scared, I thought it would be the end of my career,” she says, noting the gaps she would have to take off from photoshoot sets and the changes her body would make.
Luckily, her passion for the world of fashion would prove greater than her setback and saw her career soar to new heights when she scored her very first advert campaign with international luxury company Burberry.
It was under the guidance of then creative director of the company Riccardo Tisci that she would be welcomed with open arms.
This is testament to the changing tides of the fashion world where pressure to look a certain way isn’t as important. And neither was the mounting pressure to be a social media maven.
“I only go online if I have content to post,” Seshoka says, and has avoided pressuring herself to create viral content to be noticed by designers.
A step she stresses is not necessary as her modest social media account has often been used to score her deals.
“Your social media is important but you don’t have to do too much. You don’t have to pretend to be something you’re not,” says Seshoka.
“Designers will book you because of who you are, not who you are trying to be. So just be real.”
With a tumultuous life as a wife and mother, Seshoka has kept up with the demands of being a jet-setting model thanks to her supportive husband who understands her work in the fashion industry and her mother who also helps her out.