Fashion fight!
Brand-new reality show Battle Of The Ankara is stitching together hot new trends on our screens.
Battle Of The Ankara
Season 1 Mondays (17:30) and Fridays (19:00) Honey (*173)
Thrilling fashion is back with Honey TV’s first jam-packed fashion competition show Battle Of The Ankara. Featuring 10 up-andcoming fashion designers from across the African continent are sewing, stitching and seaming their hearts out as they race for a cash prize and the Ankara fashion crown. All designs are inspired, rooted and based on the Ankara material and print designs most commonly found in West Africa.
Designers from Ghana, Botswana, Zimbabwe and more descend on Fedisa Fashion School based in Cape Town, with radio DJ Luthando “LootLove” Shosha taking the hosting job. “This is my first time hosting a show of this calibre and it’s exciting experiencing a competition from the other end,” says LootLove. “It opened up my eyes to how much talent we have and how we’re contributing to their futures.”
MASTER SEAMERS
Bringing the best young fashion minds together, Battle Of The Ankara has made sure the contestants are getting the finest instruction and mentorship. “We’ve been fortunate enough to sign up South Africa design legends GertJohan Coetzee and Palesa Mokubung as our judges,” says LootLove, with celeb fashion fave Gert-Johan adding that “the thing that surprises me most is seeing a fresh take on how Ankara is used in new and fresh ways. We are used to seeing the fabric used very traditionally, but the contestants bring their A-game and make designs that are much more unexpected.”
This isn’t Palesa’s first time as a reality TV judge but this time it’s something special. “I have done the guest judge thing before on other fashion design shows, but being a permanent judge has always been a dream of mine. And what we’re seeing on Battle Of The Ankara isn’t just something new, it’s incredible. It’s breathtaking to see these exciting young designers and what they’re doing with the Ankara pattern and fabric that’s been around for centuries. It’s refreshing.”
PACKED FULL OF FLAVOUR
The 10 young fashion leaders chosen for the show are more than just trying to get their name out there – they’re planning on taking over the fashion world, says LootLove. “We’re seeing so many different trends. If you look at each designer, they’ve got their own distinctive vibe and style. They’re not even in the same genre of clothing, yet they’re all making magic with Ankara and the challenges that they’re set.”
Each episode sees the contestants presented with a specific theme or style that they’ve got to interpret and use in their clothing item that will be presented to and critiqued by the judges who’ve been in the industry for years. And when it comes to an eagleeye, Gert-Johan is second to none. “Your calling in life is what you do for mental sanity, and without fashion, I just wouldn’t work [as a person],” says the designer who dresses the who’s who of SA’s celebrity world. “When it comes to reality shows, it’s not only about the entertainment factor – we are working with people starting out in our industry and this could be the break they’ve been dreaming of. The older generation didn’t have this kind of platform, so it’s almost like an obligation for us to help them use this step and get their name and talent out there into the world,” adds the judge.
As for the challenges that lie ahead, Palesa adds that “we’re not giving the designers simple tasks. We want to see how they take the challenges, work with them and then interpret them into their own style. We’re not looking for mainstream or conforming to the norm. We want bright and funky and fashionforward designs from young talent who are evolving the industry that’s not just our source of income, but also our passion in life. So far, it’s pretty obvious that we’ve got the right contestants and having seen what we’ve seen already, Battle Of The Ankara is going to be a hot show!”