Anita Leer

Anita Leer was educated at Kunsthøyskolen in Oslo at The Faculty of Design, where in 2001 she received her master degree in fashion design and costume design. Today she produces her own collections. She has her own studio in Grünerløkka in Oslo.

Anita Leer feels tradition is there as a
possible point of departure towards the sophisticated expressions that she creates. “I have quite an affinity towards Africa,” she says, “as my husband is African, and thus I have an African family!”

Phindi Zulu

Phindi Zulu was educated at the Midrand University outside Johannesburg. She started her career as a designer using small patches of cloth to make clothes for herself. She learnt a lot from her great grandmother, she says.

”Fashion”, says designer Phindi Zulu – “gives us as Africans an opportunity to express ourselves, to claim a place in the modern world as Africans”.

Meropa Heritage: Fashion used as community development.

Traditional designs are used to embellish modern garments and bring African women from rural areas into the mainstream of South African economy.

“Meropa Heritage is an empowerment project, a community development project. Our clothes are quite simple but they are embellished by the art of our ancestors. This is an art that is deeply immersed in tradition that we bring into the mainstream of modernity.”

Siv Elise Seland

Siv Elise Seland was educated in Denmark and Milano. She has worked with Stefano Guerriero before moving back to Norway. Today she owns and runs the fashion design firm iiS in Stavanger.

Siv Else uses Norwegian traditional elements in much the same way as the South Africans use theirs. “Elements from traditional designs place you in time and history”, she says, “they help you define where you are, in addition to giving me a strong Norwegian identity without compromising elegance or modernity”.

Lesego Malatsi

Lesego Malatsi has worked as a designer for 13 years. He started out as a make-up artist and a beauty consultant and never looked back. In addition to being a designer he works toward empowering South African fashion industry, locally as well as internationally.

For designer Lesego Malatsi, fashion is a nation-building issue. He is inspired by the diversity of South African cultures and uses inspiration from traditional art to express his modernity. “Fashion could be a vehicle that could make other people understand us as modern day Africans better”, he says, “African fashion could provide others with insights into our ways of living”.

Mosa Mokuena

Mosa Mokuena was educated at Pretoria Teknikon, today the Tshwane University of Technology. She started out designing clothes for her dolls at the age of seven. From then on it was only a small step to designing stylish garments for real people.

Mosa Mokuena is a designer who is intensely inspired by Shangaan traditions and Shangaan art. The Shangaans are a people from the Limpopo province and Mozambique. “I am very much inspired by South African nature”, Mokuena explains, - “this gives my garments a free, flowing feel. They have quite a liberating touch to them,” she says.