Second Seychelles fashion show promises to be bigger than last year’s |07 November 2019

Mr Carolla and representatives of sponsors during the press conference yesterday (Photo: Thomas Meriton)

Twenty foreign fashion designers from South Africa, United States, Qatar, Malawi, Nigeria, Congo, Indonesia and Guyana are expected to participate in the second Seychelles Fashion Week which will take place between November 25 and December 1.

A further six local fashion designers are also set to participate in the fashion show, which has been spread out over the course of two days – November 29 and 30 – at the Eden Bleu hotel.

These are Darren Esther, Johanna Didon with her brand ‘Katiti’, Santasha Hoareau, Mervin Cedras, Vanessa Songoire and the winner of the recent ‘Fon Lanmal’, Fina Zialor.

Seychelles, through the Fashion Week, will receive significant international coverage since Fashion TV Africa and the World Channel are scheduled to attend.

The week will also be packed with a number of activities such as a business symposium with local and foreign guest speakers, a make-up workshop hosted by Pastel cosmetics and model boot-camps facilitated by Clavon Leonard from the United States.

With this year’s Fashion Week promising to be bigger than the first one held last year, the event organiser Terry Carolla has secured various sponsors for the Fashion Week.

Some of the Seychelles Fashion Week’s official sponsors and partners yesterday presented their cheques and vouchers to Mr Carolla during a presentation hosted at the offices of the department of culture.

The department of culture, through the National Arts and Culture Fund, has provided a financial aid of R30,000.

“On our part, the department of culture has given its support to the Fashion Week since its first edition and we continue to do so,” the principal secretary for culture, Cecile Kalebi, noted yesterday.

“We have a lot of talented fashion designers in Seychelles and we have seen through the ‘Fon Lanmal’ during the Creole Festival that we have a number of upcoming young designers. This event does not only give prominence to professional designers but also upcoming ones, which is a good thing,” she added.

Another government entity, the Enterprise Seychelles Agency (ESA), is also giving a helping hand by organising and sponsoring the business symposium which is to be held on November 27 at the ICCS.

ESA’s chief executive, Angelic Appoo, said that the symposium will include various aspects relating to the fashion and creative industries such as how to start a business in these sectors, what are the opportunities available and places where potential business owners can go to for assistance.

“We are appealing to local designers, models and everyone who are involved in the fashion industry – one way or another – to attend the symposium in order to gain the necessary knowledge to later apply them. We need innovation in our fashion industry, and the up and coming designers also need this boost,” Ms Appoo underscored.

The other sponsors and partners of the event include Airtel – the official communications brand for the Fashion Week, Eden Bleu hotel, Bravo restaurant, Levasseur Rum, Intelvision, Richy Kandasamy with his ‘Rikoko’ hair products, the Seychelles Tourism Board (STB) among others.

Mr Carolla expressed that it is not easy to organise an event of such magnitude but yet noted that he is optimistic for the final outcomes.

“We are optimistic so far because we have intensified our adverts and promotions. Many have expressed their interests; we are already selling the tickets and we have some reservations that have been finalised.”

Tickets for the two shows are available at Room 15 at Camion Hall and also at the office of the department of culture.

Elsie Pointe