Through urban’s Eyes: The View From her Camera
Sharpile to @_thanda_ aka Thanda Kunene for asking great questions of such an inspirational young South African creative, urbanmosadi. We ♥ the way urban describes why she loves living in Cape Town as well as her nickname for Johannesburg… and our favourite line from the interview has to be… “I seem to thrive outside of my comfort-zone, and in this case being away from home, is the only way I grow.” Representahs, make sure to shift your comfort zone every now and then – while you can, and always DO what you love. We’ll leave it up to Thanda and Urban to convince you: Tiisetso Molobi AKA Urban Mosadi is an ever-changing soul with plenty of thoughts and silent serenity. She speaks deeply about her love of photography and the need for vintage in one’s life… The name is Urban Mosadi. How did it come into existence? urbanmosadi (with the lower case) urbanwoman. I needed to open up a new email account and I needed a name that described who I was, and what I wanted to become. Mosadi means woman. The t.molobi@blahblah was really not an option for me. For the longest time I have been a tom-boy, so wanting to blossom into a woman/lady one day, made it easy for me to stick with the word and name. I have had this alias for about 5 years now. Although I still have tom-boy tendencies, I feel like I’m evolving into this urbanmosadi I envisioned years back successfully. You now reside in the windy city of Cape Town. What made you change scenery from Joburg which is also your home town? I’m a rolling stone. The moment I am in myJoHo for too long I start getting ants in my dashiki pants…lol. After coming back from living in Los Angeles for most of last year (2009) I wanted to find a place that I could connect with back home, Capetown is alot like LA, or LA is alot like Capetown. Lots of landscape similarities, I reckon the C in Capetown definitely stands for Creativity. I love that about this city. Call it what you will Slaapstad, Apetown Little Europe, but there is an organic creative buzz about this town. I also love that folks out here are mad stylish. I love love that. But over and above that, I needed a place that would be kind to my heart. I seem to thrive outside of my comfort-zone, and in this case being away from home, is the only way I grow. I never understood the “cut throat” term used to describe myJoHo…I still don’t. I’m actually starting to...
City Stylin’ : A Story of Fabricated Dreams
Thanda Kunene talks to the guys behind Durbanite fashion brand Godz who started with not much but their desire and passion to succeed in the fashion industry. After much slog and learning all about doing business right, Godz designs are worn with pride by Durban stylistas and they’re making it big in Jozi with their own shop at Campus Square – Sharpile Thanda for the inspiring words! If you are a small creative business who’d like to be interviewed, please email Editorista on editor@represent.co.za Meet Smiso Mpafu and Nkonzo. Two young fashion designers that run a Durban-based fashion label by the name of Godz. Now for those of you fond of Durban street culture, you might have noticed the once-off individual custom design clothing which is of abundance around the sunny streets of Durban. Here is a low-down on the fashionistas and their path of entrepreneurship… * How did the name “Godz” come about when choosing a name for your brand? Design is a God-given talent. * Out of all the careers in the world, why choose fashion? Fashion is our main passion in life. We grew up around it, and there is nothing in the world that could take away the urge for doing fashion. * Please give us an outline of your typical day at work. The day’s work is prepared for the day before. Or else we also hang out waiting for people who want custom designs. As you know in the fashion world there is never a repeat of the previous day’s work. * Since when has the fashion label been running and what challenges did you come upon when starting the business? The label was formed in 2003 but was registered as a business in 2006. We had issues with funding as we wanted to open a shop. Business was going well but we didn’t have an official shop to do business so we had to do door-to-door sales to to raise the capital for a proper work space. * What are the achievements you’ve reached within the fashion world so far? We managed to get a shop in the central CBD but we lost out due to finances. We have now mangaged to obtain a shop at Campus Square which is located in the art hub of Melville in Johannesburg. We also had a fashion show showcase at the Kirk Franklin Gala Dinner in 2007 which was at the Zulu Jazz Lounge, Durban. In 2008 we had a chance to showcase our work at the eThekwini Easter Fashion Showcase. In 2009 we showcased at the infamous Umgababa Beach Festival and this year we...
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