Taati’s spring has sprung

Local fashion enthusiasts were taken on an imaginary walk along the banks of the Nile river in Egypt when young designer, Taati Sibolile of  Taati Sibolile Maison showcased her Spring Summer collection 2013/14 last week at the Hilton Hotel in Windhoek.
Her newest label unveiled a collection of beautiful white cottons and linens, all tracing their origins back to the empire days of ancient Egypt.

The young designer has been designing clothes since she was in high school where she made her very first dress for a client. For Sibolile fashion is not just a job or a way of making a living but a strong passion and a way of expression. Speaking to the Economist, she emphasised that fashion speaks louder than words because when you meet someone for the first time, what speaks to you is not the person first but their clothes. She mentioned the Egyptian queen Nerftiti as her muse for her spring summer collection as she was an elegant woman who wore bold clothes that made powerful statements. It seems that the world is an oyster for Sibolile. She will be showcasing her Spring Summer collection at the Swahili Fashion week set to take place from 5 to 8 December in Dar es salaam, Tanzania. Her dream is to one day make clothes for celebrities in Hollywood and set up fashion studios in New York and Tokyo. When asked about her opinion of the Namibian fashion industry she said it is struggling because it lacks structure, “We have the talent to make nice clothes but we lack structure as designers. What we need is a formal structure that states what we should do, because in the Namibian Fashion Industry itself some of the designers have set up their own industries. We are not working together to elevate fashion in Namibia, so we need to work together as one industry in order for us to be able to get funding for our projects from the government as well and the public”. Sibolile mentioned the lack of resources and a low population as one of the challenges she faces as a designer in Namibia.
 “We do not make our own textiles and there is a lack of skilled labour in the industry”, she said.
This was the designer’s third fashion show in Namibia since she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Fashion Institute of Design South Africa (FEDISA) in Cape town last year.
She promises an even bolder range for her winter collection which she hopes will be launched in February next year.  For the winter collection she is putting something hard and aggressive into something soft and feminine with inspirations from cities in Japan.