ZIMBABWE Fashion Week (ZFW) will this year give a platform to unheralded local models during the annual week-long extravaganza, NewsDay has learnt.
ZFW hosts a model search every year to find new faces for the event.
ZFW operations manager Marcus Green said they would be conducting auditions on May 31 at Aroma Cafe in Harare and have invited interested local models to try their luck.
"For this year's edition of the Zimbabwe Fashion Week, we want to give everyone, especially upcoming models, the platform to be part of the event," Green said.
"This year we are not looking much into professionalism, but we seek to give the amateurs a chance. We are willing to groom them as long as they pose the looks and have the talent."
The fashion show will run under the theme Fashion Redefined.
Green said ZFW was redefining fashion by focusing on forgotten or unknown tribes around the world.
"For many years, fashion has looked to predominant culture for inspiration - from subjects such as popular sport, music, architecture, movies and fine art.
"These forgotten tribes employ their own unique fashion utilising the natural elements around them - from leaves and flowers to create intricate headdress, fruits to paint artistic body art, shells and seedpods for jewellery, and feathers, fur and skin for uniquely crafted garments symbolic to each tribe's respective custom," he said.
Green said they hoped the designers would develop and incorporate these tribes' natural dress to create trendy, wearable fashion in the hope of shedding new light on these unique people. The ZFW's main purpose is to create a platform for local designers to showcase their creations as well as to help rekindle what was once a thriving textile and fashion industry.
Last year's edition of the ZFW was attended by international designers, among them Leigh Schubert and Thula Sindi both from South Africa, Durban-based Zimbabwean Thembani Mubochwa, Mustafa Hassanali from Tanzania, Chisome Lombe from the Zambia, Jose Rui Lopes from Angola and Rahima Mohamed from United Kingdom. Local designers included Sarudzai Murungu, Tapfumanei Munenge, Nompumelelo Marilyn, Bridget Pisirai and Natsai Mujuru.