Phenomenal Women In The Fashion Business
Phenomenal, extraordinary, outstanding and unusually great are some of the words I can use to describe all the women on this list. Still in the spirit of celebrating women as it is Women's Month, I have decided to put together a list of women I deem as exceptional in the fashion business.
Coco Chanel
Mademoiselle Gabrielle "Coco" Bonheur Chanel is, to date, the only fashion designer to have appeared on Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century. Even though she passed away in January 1971 at the age of 87, she is one classic example of phenomenal, as her name lives on to this day. Coco started her fashion business at the age of 30 by opening a fashion boutique which specialized in clothing, hats, fragrance and accessories. Her iconic Chanel No 5 fragrance later became the cornerstone of her business. Towards the later years of her life, Chanel worked with Karl Largerfield who is still the head designer and creative director for the Chanel Fashion House. During an era of corsets and long uncomfortable dresses, Chanel resisted conformity and gave style and comfort a new meaning. Her rebellion resulted in her giving us yet more iconic items such as: the Chanel suit, the little black dress, the Chanel bag and the classic use of white pearls. To this day, Chanel is a high fashion brand that may outlive a lot of us.
Dr Precious Moloi-Motsepe
Aptly pictured in the iconic Chanel pearls, Dr Precious Moloi-Motsepe is the brains behind and Executive Chairperson of Africa Fashion International. Africa Fashion International (AFI) is a company that promotes fashion designers (from all over Africa) and enterprise development in the fashion industry. Dr Moloi-Motsepe, a qualified medical doctor with about 20 years as a General Practitioner; converted her love and talent for medicine into a talent for nurturing young fashion innovators. Through her great work, many a fashion designers have had a chance to showcase their works at the bi-annual Africa Fashion Week and also through a number of fashion weeks all over the world. As a woman married to one of Africa's wealthiest men, Patrice Motsepe, Dr Precious Moloi-Motsepe could have easily given up on her own dreams but she chose to follow them by transforming the fashion retail industry in Africa and she is doing an amazing job at it.
Khanyi Dhlomo
Khanyi Dhlomo has won every business woman accolade imaginable, been featured on almost all Forbes Magazine Lists that include anything to do with African women under 40, young millionaire African business women and anything inspirational and African. Khanyi is anything but ordinary. She has been setting ground-breaking and unprecedented records from the moment she was employed at the age of 20 years, as the first black newscaster for SABC 1. At the mere age of 22 she was appointed as True Love Magazine's Editor and she managed to literally double the magazine's circulation within a year of being Editor. Armed with an MBA from Harvard Business School, it came as no surprise when she founded the successful media house, Ndalo Media which gives us magazines such as Destiny and Destiny Man. In 2010 she was selected as a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. With her recent fashion business venture, the launch of her high fashion retail boutique, Luminance, it is without a shadow of doubt that Khanyi Dhlomo is a phenomenal woman in both fashion and business.
All The Women In The Swazi Crafts Market
It may not be fashion in the truest sense of the word but art and fashion intertwine in a lot of ways. I was very fortunate to find out some of the stories of the amazing Swazi women who are in arts, craft and handcraft. These are the women who are the breadwinners of their families, the women who take their children to school, feed and clothe them daily, save up (from their meagre earnings) and building houses that shelter their families. It is beyond my comprehension how these women do it. I am talking about the women who make tilulu, the women who make all sorts of beaded work, the women who rent market spaces along the sides of the road to sell their craft. Those are the women who make me realise that nothing in this life ever defeats a woman on a mission and I salute them!
To make use of Maya Angelou's words in her poem "Phenomenal Woman", she says "I am a woman phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, that's me. Now you understand just why my head's not bowed. I don't shout or jump about or have to talk real loud. When you see me passing, it ought to make you proud."
This is for all the amazing women who silently walk their paths and loudly inspire us all through their great work and undying spirit despite all the daily challenges that come with being a woman. I know that all the women in my life are not in fashion but they are all phenomenal and they greatly inspire me and give me strength. Who are some of the women you deem phenomenal in your personal life?
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