Change the world

20/04/2016

This article appeared in The Herald, La Femme of 20 April 2016. 

A FISTFUL of Bay fashion design students will have their designs shown to an international audience this week when the winner of the second Mohair University Design (Mud) competition is announced on Friday night in China.

Mohair garments designed by the five third-year NMMU fashion design students will compete to get a ramp stamp of approval against ranges submitted by students from the Elizabeth Galloway University in Stellenbosch, Nottingham Trend University in the UK, Donghua Fashion School in Shanghai and two Japanese institutions: Mode Gakuen University in Nagoya and Tokyo's Bunka Fashion College. 

The students - Heather Mirams, Duane van Heerden, Vuvu Dlwati, Natalie Combley and Jessie Crighton – each created a male and female ensemble using mohair for the annual student Collective exhibition and these are the garments on show in China.

This is the second year of the Mohair South Africa (MSA) Mud Competition, which MSA sees as a way to drive future growth within universities across the globe – and the design competition is about to go up a notch.

Future designers have been battling it out for first place since the launch last year and the winner will be announced on Friday at the Donghua Fashion Show in Shanghai.

MSA gave each university funds so each participant could buy mohair yarns or fabric and materials to create garments in the categories: knitwear and worsted, semi-worsted, and other.

With 10 of the best designs chosen, only selected garments will be showcased at the annual show in Shanghai, and MSA also has sponsored one representative from each university to attend the event.

“The raw talent that we have seen throughout this competition is impressive,” said MSA managing director Deon Saayman before leaving for China yesterday. “We are so glad to stand behind young students who are so passionate and creative. It’s also great to witness mohair being put to the test; a true testimony for this durable, loved natural fibre of the world.”

Lecturer Harm Grobbelaar, said his students had created an extremely diverse collection of garments, with inspirations ranging from “the obscene to prehistoric, and from township to African-inspired”.