26 Mar 2017

Tonota has hosted its first fashion and talent show on Marh 25.
Speaking at the official opening of the expo one of the organisers, Badisa Nkobela said the objective of the fashion show was to give local designers a platform to showcase their designs. Nkobela further explained that they wanted to give small fashion businesses a platform to be able to grow their business with the exposure they were going to receive from the fashion show expo.
He also added that they wanted to give local designers a chance to close a gap between their designs and big retailers on fashion clothes.
In an interview, Nkobela said the low turn up of the designers at the event was due to the fact that many designers pulled out of the expo at last minute stating that they were not ready to show case their designs.
He further explained that they received their funds late and had a limited time to prepare for the event thus making other designers have short time to prepare their designs for the event.
Nkobela thanked the Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Sports and Culture Development for the encouragement and support they have given them to be able to grow their local designers.
One of the local designers, Segametsi Mmeki said she was grateful for the fashion expo as she was new to the fashion industry. She stated that the expo gave her a chance to be able to showcase her designs to customers who did not know her as she did not have her own workshop.
She complained that the low turnout of designers to exhibit their designers were because some designers were not aware of such an event and had little time to prepare.
Other designers from Condi M Enterprises Elizabeth Mogopa and Kereng Charlie said the fashion expo was an encouraging initiative for local designers.
The duo explained that the expo gave designers a chance to come and network and benchmark with other designers on issues pertaining to their industry.
Mogopa encouraged the organisers of the event that on their next fashion expo they should involve the designers to market their event as there was a low turn up of designers.
In his welcome remarks, Kgosi Terrence Sekoko of Tonota encouraged organisers of the fashion and talent expo not to give up despite the low turn up of designers. He said for them to succeed they had to start low to be able to make it big. ENDS