All Images Supplied by FJ at Eye Poetry photography The Free State Fashion Week continues to grow in leap and bounds, and the woman behind the glamourous event, Candy Smith, feels overwhelmed with joy and proudly says “I am not done yet, there is more to come.”
True to her words, the renowned fashion designer in her own right launched an attractive magazine that will carter for both upcoming and established designers. The energetic Smith is running multiple other platforms which are aimed at empowering young creatives in design arts.
She founded the Free State Fashion Week in 2016, is the Managing Director of the Free State Fashion Hub, a fashion design school.
In her many accolades she is also chairperson of the Free State Fashion Council, a non-profit agency aimed at giving back to the community by providing mentorship programmes to youth.
With a glowing smile on her face, she says “My passion and drive in uplifting others is what makes me want more.”
Africa has surely arrived on the big stage of fashion design. A combination of cultural aesthetic, philosophy of science, and philosophy of history that explores the developing intersection of African
Diaspora culture with technology.
Mark Dery who is an American author, lecturer and cultural critic is credited to have coined the term in the early 1990s through conversations led by Alondra Nelson.
Now, creatives in the continent are reclaiming their space in the fashion industry and are surely making an impression at the global stage.
This was much more visible at the Free State Fashion Week, as the shining rough diamond of Free State is now shaking the South Africa Fashion Industry to its very core.
We picked this up when Smith tells GLAMOUR that she wants to make the FSFW even much bigger next year. She says they are now looking into finding a much bigger venue and create more platforms that would possible match the South African Fashion Week.
She says,” People often say I have surely arrived!! But I promise you, it’s still a long way to go. For the whole year we plan and plan these events, but on the actually day you don’t know what to expect. My work from now on is really look into building the Free State Fashion Council, structuring it very well, making it strong and sustainable. This is our next big journey; we want to grow it even bigger.”
