International director for Harare fashion week

SOUTH African internationally-acclaimed fashion show director, Jan Malan will direct the inaugural Harare Fashion Week (HFW) scheduled for the capital later this year.

Malan has staged high-profile productions including New York Fashion Week and Face of Africa, and has worked with Elton John, Tyra Banks and Louis Vuitton.

The organisers of the high-profile fashion extravaganza, in a statement said the event, that would be held later this year, brought back the country’s top designers giving it an international flare.

“The fashion week will be a top class event that will bring an international standard to Zimbabwe with a mission of coming together of investors, sponsors and creators who will collaborate to bring our gems back home, to celebrate them and empower the next generation of luxury African fashion on the continent,” HFW chief executive officer Patience Muzanenhamo-Lusengo said.

“The Harare Fashion Week team is thrilled to execute this vision and celebrate Zimbabwe’s full potential in rich and colourful fashion, from our diamonds, the rough to the polished international diamonds that fly the Zimbabwean flag high.”

Muzanenhamo-Lusengo said the fashion extravaganza would give local designers a platform to showcase themselves as well as bring back the country’s best designers in the Diaspora.

“Emerging photographers and videographers will also have the opportunity to cover and create content of the collections through HFW’s unique development programme EMER-GEN, this will play a pivotal role in promoting Zimbabwe’s creatives,” she said.

The event’s executive producer Leon Haasbroek said: “Fashion Week is a global marketing and sales platform that is used to promote not only designers, but the entire creative industry and value chain.

“Creating opportunities for small businesses development, which will see job creation, skillset development in Africa, the ultimate goal being to advocate for cross-border trade.”