Namibian Designers Invade African Fashion at Ghana Festival

It was a great day for Namibian fashion when Leah Misika and Lourens ‘Loux The Vintage Guru’ Gebhardt were crowned best African designers at the recent Mercedez Benz African Fashion Festival held in Ghana on 24 May.

Both designers share a strong work ethic and are trailblazers who refuse to go unnoticed, in Namibia and beyond our borders. The Weekender chats to them both, finding out what ticks their fashion boxes…

Not your average fashion designer, Leah Misika is fast carving a place for herself as one of Namibia’s fastest rising fashionistas. This was proven when she was honoured as the Best Female Designer of the Year at the recently held Mercedez Benz African Fashion Festival 2014.

The best designer nod is astonishing given that this was her first showing with a full collection.

Since graduating, Leah has never showcased her work and her debut collection has proven to be impressive. A well trained designer, Leah studied fashion in Miami and has since sought to tap into Namibia’s relatively small fashion industry through various ventures including TV and retail.

Apart from that, she’s also a stylist and a regular columnist on The Weekender’s fashion pages.

How she keeps up this amazing work ethic is attributed to lack of sleep, she says jokingly. “I don’t sleep. I wasn’t even ready for what this collection would entail, it actually took me a month to complete and literally a day to finish off the last two garments.”

Showing alongside designers from Kenya, South Africa, Togo, Ghana and Nigeria amongst other countries, Leah’s designs stood out, being described by event organiser Gideon Raji as “perfect and professional”. She describes her creations as contemporary and wearable. “I think my designs stood out because they had a lot of detail and the overall design concept was contemporary. The overall collection made sense,” she says.

“I didn’t join the fashion world to create crazy garments but to make things that people would actually want to wear. I do not like complicated things.”

Being very passionate and outspoken about the Namibian fashion industry, she is hopeful that a fashion festival, much like the one held in Ghana, could take place on home soil and dreams of helping to make that happen. “I actually do want to get involved in making this happen and help out were I can as I want the industry to grow,” she says.

If she stays on the path that she is on, this dream may well come true and Leah could just help strengthen the foundations of a small, yet promising industry.

HE never thought he would start and grow a brand that would go beyond the African continent and now Lourens ‘Loux The Vintage Guru’ Gebhardt has newspapers, magazines, radio and television networks from all over the world talking about his vintage movement.

He recently showcased his collection, ‘A Gentleman’s Living’, in Ghana and it won him the Best Male Designer of the Year award at the Mercedes Benz African Fashion Festival.

“I did not think that it would become this big but because I love fashion so much I knew I wanted to have a brand,” he says. With a big emphasis on quality, Loux says he gets his fabric from Chelsea Fashions and Misha’s Creations right here in Windhoek. To achieve the vintage look, he is always on the look out for vintage items wherever he goes. A watch here, a bag there and some shoes too.

The designer says that the double breasted and big lapel cuts seen in his collection are vintage, inspired by 70s fashion trends.

He adds that although he concentrates on male clothing, thanking his team, Gebhardt says he is now moving into making female clothing too. He does not have a specific target group, dressing whoever desires and can afford his work.

Sadly, Gebhardt says with all the moves he has been making, besides support from Chelsea Fashions, there is still no support from corporate entities in the country.

“I am trying to reach the international market for potential investors because I need to cater for the demand and also to get the brand out there,” he said.