Kenya-based designer, Hleziwe Hara, is planning to come home and add a little more beadwork to Malawi’s growing fashion industry.
The Malawi-born trendsetter is the brains behind Beadazle clothing line which has left the east African nation on the edge. He told Urban Life Malawi the desired coming would bring along jobs for young people who are idle back home and worst hit by the devaluation of the kwacha.
“The concept that I have in mind is to get a group of young people, focus is on the less fortunate. I would teach them how to make the beads [and] help them get the market so that they can sell. The money they make will be used to sustain themselves so that they do not resort to drugs and other irresponsible behaviour,” the artist is quoted as saying on the online magazine’s website, urbanlifemw.com
She described the project as a “work in progress” which she cannot do singlehandedly.
There are numberless jewellery makers on the continent, but the online magazine rates Hara as “one of the best designers Malawi has ever bred”.
“Quality and originality is what her collection is based on, style, price and value might sway your decisions about the young designer. She is only 29. By looking at her collection, you will know that her collection is the best for originality, quality and overall greatness,” the magazine writes.
The bead line started as a hobby in 2010. From making and selling bracelets and earrings to her mother’s friends to repairing neighbour’s jewellery for pocket money, that is the road the sociology graduate has travelled.
