A model wearing one of Mustafa Hassanali’s design during Bangalore Fashion Week 2012

A model wearing one of Mustafa Hassanali’s design during Bangalore Fashion Week 2012

A model wearing one of Mustafa Hassanali’s design during Bangalore Fashion Week 2012

Mustafa Hassanali during grand finale with showstopper Tanzania model based in sweden Michel Jeng

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The name Belina Mgeni is not uncommon among fashion and modeling enthusiasts in Tanzania and across Africa. She is one of the gorgeous models to come from the land of Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar. Belina, who is called “Tyra Banks” by her friends and fans,is highly expected to follow the suit of other Tanzanians models such as Flaviana Matata,Millen Magese and Tausi Likokola etc who have made it “international”.

I recently had an opportunity to interview her on a couple of things including her modeling career, a bit about her personal life and more. Here is how it all went down in the 10 Questions for Belina Mgeni;

BC: Can you tell me a bit about your background. When and where were you born? Did you grow up there or you moved to somewhere else?

BELINA: I was born in Biharamulo-Kagera Region almost three decades ago. I then moved to several other regions before settling in Shinyanga and later on moved to Dar-es-salaam.

BC: What attracted you to the world of fashion and modeling and how did you start? Were you discovered by someone?

BELINA: I loved fashion since when I was kid. But the person who can take credit of discovering me was a Tanzanian modeling agency which was under Irene Kiwia. I was taking my picture at the studio when somebody named Abdalah called Irene and told her that there was a girl who can be perfect for her modelling staff. Irene came and met me there and that was the beginning of my modeling career.

BC: So far, how many shows have you participated into and what can you say was/is the highlight of your career so far?

BELINA: So far I have done quite many shows/catwalks. It’s hard to remember specific figure. However, currently I am doing more advertisements than catwalks.

BC: You are one of the most beautiful Tanzanian models. How do you maintain that beauty? Any special formula/secret?

BELINA: ahhahahah not sure about that one, but I don’t have any formula or secret to be honest. I eat a lot and I don’t even go to the Gym. I guess I am just lucky..lol

BC: What is one big misconception people have about you?

BELINA: Some people think am too proud and all over myself. That is not true and to the opposite; I am just a simple and easy going person.

BC: What is your definition of beauty?

BELINA: My definition of beauty is good character and good looking (good looks)

BC: If I was to ask your friends about you, how do you think they will describe you?

BELINA: They would tell you that I am a very straight forward person and very unselfish to my friends.

BC: You recently got engaged, any plans for marriage?

BELINA: hahahahahah…No I am not engaged but I do have a boyfriend.

BC: Who is your role model as far as modeling is concerned?

BELINA: Tyra Banks

BC: Any words of advice for a young lady who aspires to be a model?

BELINA: Don’t give up on what you like. Work hard until you achieve it.

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Heroin addiction is a growing problem in Zanzibar, and a group called Muamko (meaning ‘Awakening’) was created two years ago by recovering addicts, and a year ago they decided to forge ahead with creating Drug Free Zanzibar – an NGO dedicated to providing education, rehabilitation and recovery facilities for Zanzibaris in need of help to quit the drug.

Explore Zanzibar Co. Ltd has therefore decided to team up with ‘Drug Free Zanzibar’, in association with Vodacom Foundation & the well-known fashion designer Ally Rehmtullah from Dar es Salaam, along with guest designers like Farouque Abdella, Vida Mahimbo and Kihage, together with International belly dancer Tamalyn Dallal who has danced her way around the world to raise funds for the recovery projects run by Drug Free Zanzibar, to take place during a gala dinner at the Zanzibar Serena Hotel on the 8th of February 2011 at 6:30pm.
This event is scheduled to take place during the world famous Sauti Ya Busara week, under the Busara Xtra platform. Busara Xtra is the name given to the variety of fringe cultural shows and activities happening in Zanzibar during this week.

Come and show your support, of an evening full of fashion, style & music while in the meantime raising funds towards the cause.

This event is sponsored by  Vodacom Foundation, Zanzibar Serena Inn, i-View Media, Darling Hair, QMB, Vayle Springs & DarLife.

Tuesday  8^th February 2010

Zanzibar Serena Inn: 6:30pm – 10:30pm

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We promised to give it a try and finally we can answer that question not only in private but also in public for the benefit of others including yourself. But before we reveal our top 10,I’d like to mention that our list is in no particular order. It is random…

Second, what rationale  did we use in picking up our top 10? Just to mention a few of them…first it was creativity. Then we looked at how active a designer is in terms of his/her own work as well as the community at large. Participation and international recognition was also a  piece that we pushed into consideration.And of course marketability of the products was a factor. In marketability we considered how well someone’s designs are doing in local markets and also their online presence…things like that.

Below is our top 10. Who do you think we missed and in your opinion they should have made it into our list? Your comments.

Manju Msita

Fatma Amour

Khadija Mwanamboka

Mustafa Hassanali

Jamilla Vera Swai

Farha Sultan

Ally Rhemtullah

Zamda George

Ailinda Sawe

Asia Idarous Khamsin

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The 8 Finalists for the Swahili Fashion Week Emerging Designers 2010 competiton with event Organizer Mustafa Hassanali

“Contemporary Swahili” is the Theme of 2010 Competition

The last 8 Finalists are competing for the prestigious emerging designer title during the Swahili Fashion Week to be held in November this year.

The selection was held on 10 September 2010 at the Southern Sun Hotel where 8 emerging designers were selected by a Panelist of Four Judges. The team of Judges consisted of ,Nsao Shalua, The Director of Arts of the National Arts Council, Jamila Swai, a leading women’s fashion designer, Michelangelo Adam from Italian Embassy and Mustafa Hassanali.

The finals designers are Zarina Suleiman, Pooja Narendrakumar Jeshang, Abduel Urassa, Shaban Mfaume, Kelvin Boniface, Subira Rahma Wahure, Angelina Muna and Grace Kijo.

“In short! All 16 were good but as this is a competition we must choose the winners, the final selection has shown real creative talent in fashion designing”, explained Washington Benbella, Swahili Fashion Week Coordinator.

The Judges who selected the finalists for the Emerging Designers Competition from (Right) Jamila Swai (Middle ) and Michelangela Adams from Italian Embassy

Benbella continued to say that “through this competition we notice that Tanzania is rich for talented fashion designers, but all who do not go on to win, I encourage them to work hard to reach their goals”.

The judges were looking at various criteria to choose the final 8 candidates based upon the designers ability to sketch, illustrate attractiveness, creativity, colour and thematic relation.

Swahili Fashion Week is a platform for designers - both fashion and accessory – from Swahili speaking countries to showcase their creativity, market their art and network with their clientele. This is all aimed at promoting fashion as an income generating, job creating industry while emphasizing a “Made in East Africa “concept.

Initiating a dynamic and promising platform for the fashion industry in the region, Swahili Fashion Week is geared towards being the most sought out after fashion platform in Eastern Africa for the international market.

The third annual Swahili Fashion Week will take place this November in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.

The competition, now in its third year has no age limit, and was open to anyone who believes he or she has the creative talent to be a fashion designer. “Swahili Fashion week is the perfect platform for a designer to showcases his creation, and the emerging designers competition, is a stage to jump start ones career.” Added Mustafa Hassanali Swahili Fashion Week Organizer.

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KFG LTD- 15^th July 2010- Announces the Launch of “African Queen Kanga Jeans”

A hot wind blows in New York. It comes from Africa. It doesn’t however bring sultry equatorial temperatures, but the seeds of new ideas. Vida Mahimbo comes from the slopes of the Kilimanjaro in Tanzania with her collection of Kanga Jeans and a story of synergies between antique and modern, and west and south of the world.

She grew up in the midst of her mother’s looms, listening to the stories her father told when returning from his overseas job as a textile engineer. From this, even when still young, came a personal elaboration of the traditions of her homeland and technological innovations in order to dress the woman of the New Millennium.

After graduating in Business Administration and Marketing at Dar es Salaam, convinced that economic planning is an indispensable requisite for an African stylist, Vida finally created the Karisma Fashion Group, an Italian/Tanzanian business that unites African creativity and the high quality of Italian fabrics. Colours, designs, symbols inspired by Masai culture, combined with forms that reject the sanctioned idea of an ethereal female and proudly show the beauty of real, live bodies, have crossed the confines of Africa and landed in Monte Carlo and Paris boutiques.

Vida Mahimbo has chosen New York, ideal melting pot capital, to present her latest collection of jeans and tops, result of a long stylistic research and her project to take Africa to the world through fashion. Therefore the heart of her collection is the desire to develop a cultural message made of graphic design and innovative sartorial solutions.

In fact, Vida has combined the the most fashionable international garment, jeans, with kanga, typical East African garments. A kanga is a large rectangle of cotton printed with symbolic designs and traditional proverbs, bound in pairs on body and hips of both men and women. They’re not just simple clothing, nor only ornamental, but real iconographic media used for centuries to communicate messages to the community.

Vida has collected them, studied them as if they were works of art, cutting them, and finally assembling them with slightly elasticized pure cotton jeans. They wrap a proud body without constraints, as African women have always known how to do. The result is a crossover of two cultures that only apparently speak different languages, and that harmonize in sensuous pants, in fashionable colours that are capable, through cleverly placed openings, to reveal the antique female soul.

They are combined with essential shaped tops and t-shirts, printed with stylized designs inspired by Masai colours and symbols. Pure geometric lines that resemble European abstract art, also influenced by tribal cultures. Cross references that has almost become a trademark that reminds the world of our roots, and women from all countries that beauty is hidden deeply inside them all, simple and strong. A glance is enough to free it. African Queens in Kanga Jeans.

For more Details: Please contact: www.kangajeans.com or www.vidamahimbo.com.

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Unless you are familiar with the local fashion industry you most probably have not heard of Jamilla Vera Swai. This young woman compensates her petite stature by making grand, vibrant, exotic, all in your face extraordinaire designs. In her designs, she caters for everyone, from the small ones to the grown ups. There is nothing that this mother of one can not do, and when you actually meet her you get to be surprised by everything she has accomplished.

Born in a month of August in Dar es Salaam (a lady never tells her age) to a predominant Dr. Swai and his lovely wife Juliette (I can see where Jamilla gets her beauty from). Jamilla’s love affair with fashion started when she was just 7 years old. She would use her dolls to create clothes for. At the age of 14, while she was still in high school, as it usually happens, she caught a modeling agency’s eye and started modeling for adverts on local TV station in Maputo as well as designing for the agency she was signed with, The Studio Stilo.

Being of a petite stature and not being able to do modeling full time, Jamilla concentrated on what she was doing best, which was designing. To perfect her skills she joined Institute de Bela Artes in Maputo to study fashion then later on moved to Fashion College International in Nairobi to complete her studies.

She decided to return to her home town of Dar es salaam, open up Jamilla Vera Swai Design Studio and give the already established local designers some very heavy competition. Since then she has participated in various fashion shows and did some exclusive designs for her growing group of clients, including clothes for retail shops.

Now Jamilla Vera Swai has been invited by Mozambique Fashion Week, to  represent Swahili Fashion Week at this Annual Event to be Held in Maputo from 6-12 December 2009.
“It’s a pleasure representing Tanzania and Swahili Fashion Week at the Mozambique Fashion Week. I had wanted to participate in International Events and my dreams shall now Come true” says Jamilla.

She was selected by International producer Jan Malan and Mwamvita Makamba , Director of corpoarate Affairs Vodacom Tanzania  during the Swahili Fashion Week.

Speaking of her collection to be unveiled on 12 December during the Pan African Showcase, “My collection is inspired by nature. I’ve used shades of brown, beige, cream, green, black and purple to emphasize this. Some darker dyes bleed into lighter colors to mimic a soaked garment when you walk on wet ground. The style is modern with an ethnic feel to it” Swai adds

During Swahili Fashion 2009 in association with Vodacom & ZTE designers Adelia and Sheila Tique from Mozambique had the opportunity to participate in November this year. This is just the Beginning of Strenghtening of Not only Political ties between Tanzania and Mozambique  but also Cultural ties too. The Bond shall grow Deeper and stronger Year after year.

Jamilla Vera Swai - Design at SFW 2009

The Mozambique Fashion Week (MFW), is an artistic and cultural event, and is the only one in Mozambique that is connected to the desire to create and that works in discovering new talents and fashion designers, creating opportunities in opening new business markets and professional contacts for the fashion industry in Mozambique andworldwide.

Mozambique Fashion Week has as an objective of enhancing national fashion and beauty and also aims at expanding the fashion market in Mozambique, discovering new talents around the country.

The MFW is a driving vehicle for the development of the Mozambican fashion industry and a major tourist attraction in the promotion of culture and well-being, putting Mozambique in the itinerary of international fashion.

Mustafa Hassanali was the first designer to  Represented Tanzania at the 2007 Edition of Mozambique Fashion Week.

BC wishes to congratulate Jamilla on her success and wishes her all the best in the future.

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To put it simple; he is young and talented! That statement becomes even more true when you take a closer look on what he does; design wearable garments which are in the true sense of a combination of cultures,styles and fabrics. We are talking about Ally Rehmtullah(photo above)

Right now he is among the most respected fashion designers in Tanzania. And he is not done yet. He vividly mention that a lot more is coming from him. All you have to do,if you are a fashion enthusiast, is to wait for more. A lot more!

We recently caught up with him for a chit chat. Here is how it all went down;

BC: When and how did you decide to become a Fashion Designer? How did it all start?

AR: Fashion has been part of my life since my childhood.I have always loved fashion and design. But it got serious when I went to Philadelphia-USA to study graphics. When there, I also branched into fashion and graduated with both majors.

BC: Fashion is a personal statement, it has no rules. Whatever someone chooses to put on should be accepted. Do you agree with that statement?

AR: I do. To me fashion means wearing something that makes a statement. Anything that makes people turn around and stare at you in a good way.

BC: Then what do you think makes someone a great fashion designer?

AR: Having the right style, know what you are doing and how you do it.In Tanzania its all about who you are and what you do. A great fashion designer should also be seen at the right places with the right people and do the right things.

BC: There are many fashion designers now in Tanzania, so we can imagine the competition is a bit more than it used to be. Who do you consider to be your competitor and how do you guys work together to make Tanzanians believe in home made designer’s clothes?

AR: I don’t think I have any competition. All the designers here are very different from each other. Each one,including myself, have their own market and clients. However, of course with the right quality and end product people tends to believe in you. I believe that is what we need to do in order for more people to choose our products over imported ones.

AR

BC: As a designer, what do you think of the whole internet phenomena and do you feel it benefits you much?

AR: A lot. As a good fashion designer it is my duty to educate fellow Tanzanians about what is happening in the international market. I therefore use the internet to follow the international trends of fashion as well as keep up with the latest ins and outs of the fashion world.

BC: On average how much of time do you spend on the internet on daily basis?

AR: An hour or two at most.

BC: What are the benefits of your career? What do you find most rewarding about it?

AR: My career connects me to a lot of people.It also feels so good when someone tells you that you are their inspiration. When someone looks up to you and wants to be like you. It’s a great feeling when you work hard on something and it is appreciated by many.I find those things very satisfying and therefore rewarding.

BC: What inspires you Ally?

AR: Everything around me. I live in a country which has so much beautiful things around. I never have to look hard for insipiration.

BC: How do you start designing a collection?

AR: I start by thinking about what is in the market. Then I take a close look at my environment, my clients and how will the latest trend make me more accepted in the market. I also do a research on the colours that are in season. What follows is preparation of sketches before going shopping for fabrics. I then take it from there.

But I also want to work with pieces that are wearable and pieces that someone can relate to their daily lives. Unfortunately that route involves some risks but it’s all good.

Ally(right) with another Tanzanian fashion designer,Farha in Dar-es-salaam.

BC: Talking about risks; has there been a time when you have had difficult obstacles to face and almost gave up in your career?Or you wished you were never a fashion designer at all?

AR: I have never regretted being a designer. Obstacles are always there especially during the initial stages. But once you start thinking positive and believe in yourself, you will see wonders.

BC: Recently you were among the judges at the Miss Universe Tanzania beauty pageant. How was that experience?

AR: It was very good experience especially being there with Rosie from South Africa who is a presenter with MNET. It felt good and it was a high profiled event.

BC: Basing on what you saw, what you judged…do you think Tanzania will stand out at the world stage?

AR: The girl we chose is smart and beautiful. She also has had an interesting past basing on her one on one interview. With the right attitude she could take Tanzania very far at the world stage.

Ally(left) posing with Miss Universe 2009,Iluminata James.

BC: What should a young person do to prepare himself/herself to become a fashion designer?

AR: Believe in themselves and fight.

BC: What do you wish people could understand about working in the fashion industry?

AR: I wish people could understand that it’s not always about fame. It’s about passion and you need to struggle to get there and it’s not an easy struggle.

BC: What is a typical day for you like?

AR: It varies. Like right now, wake up at 10-eat breakfast. Go to work for few hours, eat.Go shopping for home,cook dinner for my baby, go to sleep. I guess this is because the last show I put together drained me out big time.

I am going to Malawi on friday for the weekend to relax a bit before coming back and pay more attention to my work and to my next projects that are coming up.

BC: What do you like doing when you are not designing clothes or judging beauty pageants?

AR: Eating,sleeping,reading,painting,traveling around and spending time with myself.

BC: Who are some of your favourite fashion designers in the world?

AR: I love McQueen, Vivienne Westwood. These designers are not afraid of doing what they feel like doing. I admire them for that. They always suprise me.

Thank you! That is what he seems to be saying to the people who attended his most recent show which he called Delectables.

BC: The world of fashion talks a lot about Barack and Michelle Obama…especially Michelle’s fashion and choices. Does her fashion and style inspire you in any way?

AR: No comments. I haven’t really paid attention to it. I am as bad in politics as I am at cooking. But I have seen her few times and she always looked well dressed with right colours and right attire.

BC: Are you married Ally?

AR: No.I am not married and super happy. Bado nipo nipo kwanza.

BC: If anyone wants to help or needs your assistance, how can they do so or contact you?

AR: They can contact me through info@allyzdesigns.com. I love helping people and showing them the way to be successful. Everyone is welcome.

BC: Ally thank you very much for your time. I wish you all the best in your career.

AR: Thank you too Jeff. Thank you for your time and also considering me to be on BongoCelebrity!!

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Sanaa ya ubunifu wa mitindo ya viwalo nchini Tanzania inazidi kukua.Leo hii sio jambo la ajabu kusikia habari za maonyesho ya mavazi.Pamoja na hayo, sanaa hiyo bado inahitaji kuongezwa nguvu kwa kuungwa mkono na wananchi na pia serikali. Tuipende mitindo ya kwetu na pia tununue mitindo na bidhaa za kwetu.

Miongoni mwa wabunifu ambao wanachangia kukua kwa sanaa hiyo ni kama wanavyoonekana pichani,Fatma Amour na Mustafa Hassanali.Hapo walikuwa pamoja wakati wa onyesho lililoandaliwa na Fatma na kuitwa Kakakuona.Onyesho lilifanyikia pale Dar Alive wiki iliyopita.

Photo/John Bukuku.

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Pichani ni wabunifu wa mitindo ya mavazi Farha(kushoto) na Ally Rehmttulah(kulia).Picha hii ilipigwa na Mpoki Bukuku wakati wabunifu hao walipokuwa wanahudhuria onyesho la mavazi lililoitwa Lady in Red hivi karibuni jijini Dar-es-salaam.Ukitaka kupata vitu zaidi kuhusu kazi za Ally Rehmttulah unaweza kuitembelea tovuti yake kwa kubonyeza hapa.

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