All Shades of Beautiful bleeds from lack of support
A fortnight ago, Malawi witnessed the second edition of All Shades of Beautiful Fashion Show at Amaryllis Hotel in Blantyre. This is a platform which celebrates the beauty, work and talents of people living with disabilities. Despite posting successes, brains behind the concept Xandria Kawanga says the initiative has, in the two years it has been faced financial challenges as well as lack of support from relevant stakeholders and the corporate world. Our Staff Reporter BRIAN ITAI caught up with Xandria and here are the excerpts:
Q
: Take us how the All Shades of Beautiful concept was hatched?
A
: All shades of Beautiful is a fashion initiative started by House of Xandria to bring about social change using fashion. We hosted our first fashion show last year that gave a platform to persons with disabilities to showcase their work and talent. This year, we hosted the second edition and we have introduced a designer competition called Design Genius. We selected 10 up-and-coming fashion designers, five with disabilities and five without disabilities. We gave them materials to create clothes in the categories of sustainable, adaptive and traditional fashion. They presented their work on the day, and we had three judges, namely Lilly Alfonso, Kulukaya Sadiki and Misozi, who named Charlie Cliff the winner of Design Genius 2022. But this does not stop here. After the fashion show, the designers will undergo a business incubation programme to help them become entrepreneurs in the fashion industry.
Q
: What drove you to develop such as concept?
A
: The gap that is there in fashion where persons with disabilities don’t have a platform to showcase their work and talent.
Q
: How do you rate the involvement of people with disabilities in activities related to fashion?
A
: If you look at the Malawian fashion industry as a whole, you will see that there is almost zero participation of people with disabilities. At the moment, we are the only organisation that is fully involving persons with disabilities in activities to do with fashion at such a higher level.
Q
: How would you describe the response that the event has received since its inception?
A
: The response has been amazing. It is growing really quick since it was introduced last year. More persons with disabilities are now eager to participate and showcase their work on the platform.
Q
: What have been the biggest challenges that you have faced?
A
: The biggest challenge has been our failure or lack of to get financial sponsorship. It has not been easy operating and executing the event without the support from corporates and non-governmental organisations who share the same ideals and objectives working in a similar space to ours.
Q
: Do you think corporates should do more to support this initiative?
A
: Definitely! They really need to do more. This initiative is one of the ways we are using to bring about social economic change using fashion that aligns with Malawi’s 2063 agenda. We will continue pushing until our ideals are achieved through this platform.
