07 Jul 2025

Motswana fashion designer, Moitshepi Mokaila will showcase her creations at Alliance Française Bastille Day fashion show on July 12 to hone her craft ahead of  her maiden appearance at this year’s Paris Fashion Week. 

Her works will be exhibited at the institution’s upcoming pop-up market to gauge her following. Mokaila will be among local designers billed to showcase at the Paris Fashion Week slated for France at the end of September. Mokaila and others will be on a fashion learning and showcasing expedition during a week long show, courtesy of Creation Botswana Programme, an initiative supported by the French government to foster fashion and textile entrepreneurship in Botswana.

In an interview, the fashionista said being part of the reputable show was exciting as she stood to exchange fashion tips with the world’s best, on a platform where designers experimented with colours, fabrics and silhouettes for the warmer months. 

Her impressive résumé includes working as costume designer for the award-winning film, Morwaake and serving as head designer for Mzansi Magic’s Khumo Ya Dinaledi film. Now, she is taking her fashion brand, Decisive, formerly known as Indecisive to the global stage.

“We will have a pop-up shop as well as a fashion showcase in Paris,” Mokaila said, expressing excitement about the networking opportunities the trip will offer.

Known for her vibrant use of colour and unconventional materials such as PVC plastic, Mokaila’s designs are bold, innovative, and unapologetically expressive.

“You can’t miss these designs, they are in your face, bold, rebellious, and confident in their own light. Those are the elements I want to bring to the Paris platform,” she said.

Last year, a GoFundMe campaign she launched to help fund her Master’s studies at an Ivy League fashion school in New York did not go as planned.

“I was blessed with a partial merit-based scholarship, but the tuition fees were still too high. I was granted a one-year deferral, but even then, the fees remained out of reach,” she recalled.

That was when the Creation Botswana opportunity emerged.

“It was a highly competitive process to enroll in the programme, but I made it,” she said proudly.

Since joining the programme Mokaila visited the Museum of Africa in Johannesburg, South Africa, an experience she described as a game-changer.

“How they captured African designers’ works was incredibly inspiring, and touring Thebe Magugu’s atelier with him as our guide was unforgettable.” 

Before heading to Paris, Mokaila will stay connected to French culture locally. ENDS