We recently had a Closed Call Pitching session for our Das Kollektiv Major Grants, and we are excited to share the two projects we are supporting this year.
We are delighted to announce Fungai Mazoroza as one of our Das Kollektiv 2023 Grantees.
Fungai is a young Zimbabwean with over 10 years of fashion design experience, including a fashion degree, and also dabbles in styling, film, interior design, graphic art, fine art, set design, and content creation. She owns two fashion businesses, ‘FungaixRufaro’ (which she co-owns with her business partner Rufaro Kasukuwere) and ‘Fungai Muzoroza’ (started as a university portfolio and turned into a business due to demand). She is also working on growing her home store ‘Flo&Co’, which she created to create a lucrative pathway for her love for art, interior, and self-care. Fungai Muzoroza is currently contesting in a TV show called “Battle Of The Ankara” on DSTV
Fungai created ‘Braided/Ruka’. African women have used ‘kuruka’ as a technique for aeons, whether it be through hair or the clothes that keep us warm, and our brand took this up with the aim of becoming a more sustainable brand. The full collection name, ‘braided birthmark,’ featured knitted pieces, crotchet, and macrame soon after. All of these methods are known for being extremely sustainable globally. Our brand has come across a way to make these methods even more sustainable simply by using a plant commonly used by the Rwandese. A banana tree!
Rwanda is known for its amazing crafts and weaving. Many of their weaving crafts use banana trees as fibre, making it much softer than the sisal plant. Whilst in Rwanda, after seeing how effective this technique is for their arts/fashion and tourism industry, she thought it would be amazing to collaborate with some of the fantastic women and learn the step-by-step guide of how to create fibre from the banana plant and the weaving methods used to create some of their famously woven Aztec patterned baskets, mats, bags and many more.
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