As the Coronavirus continues to sweep across the globe, the fashion industry, like other sectors, faces a grim future. With fashion shows postponed or cancelled indefinitely, there’s a need to do things differently. Congolese designer Anifa Mvuemba’s innovative inaugural fashion show on Instagram Live might be a glimpse into the future.
The 3D virtual fashion show was planned months before COVID-19 struck the world. “This labour of love took about seven months hours to create,” said Mvuemba on her Twitter page. The brand presented the Pink Label Congo collection, which showcased a wide array of garments sashaying sans models down a virtual catwalk. The collection was inspired by the history of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), her homeland.
“Riddled with a painful history, my country has a beauty which is often untapped and overlooked. The gentleness, beauty, history, poise, majesty, strength, power and hope of the Congolese spirit inspired this collection. When creating each piece, I was reminded of the stories my mother told me about the women she knew back home in the Congo. They had suffered great loss, but still mustered every ounce of strength to show up each day and carry on,” she noted on the Hanifa website.
Mvuemba added that she hoped the collection would inspire all women to stand tall in their power and, like the DRC, use their history – whether pleasant or painful – to redesign their future. “My country is ripe with an abundance of natural resources, the greatest of which are its people – its women,” she wrote.
Very often the role of women innovators is erased from the annals of history. This is especially true of black women. Now is the time for us to acknowledge young black creative women doing work that has the potential to change our culture.
Watch the video below:
