DAY TWO OF THE SWAHILI FASHION WEEK BRINGS UNEXPECTED WINDFALLS
(Posted 06th December 2015)
(Swahili Fashion Week founder Mustafa Hassanali and his 2015 logo for the event)
Perhaps some of my more aviation savvy readers may have heard of www.emirates.com/bethere but I would suspect that most in fact have not. What, you may ask, does that have to do with the Swahili Fashion Week I am presently attending at the Seacliff Hotel in Tanzania’s commercial capital of Dar es Salaam. Well, a lot actually so read on to get the meaning of all this.
Meet Emirates Boeing B777 Captain Ashley Klinger, who describes herself, when she is not at the controls of an aircraft, as a ‘Fashionista’ through and through, and when you read her story you believe that is indeed so. ‘You might not guess it, but I’m an Emirates pilot. I’m also a girly girl who’s into fashion. I’ll take you around the world uncovering the style of different cultures. Fashion is my passion – when I travel, I take those inspirations home with me to create my own personal style.
· Watch my story
Many have in fact in recent days, just like a year or two years ago, asked the question what is an aviation and travel writer doing at a fashion event and maybe now, with Ashley Klinger in the picture, are the pieces of the puzzle falling into place. Fashion tourism is real, and having invented the phrase when first following the regional fashionistas to the Swahili, Zanzibar and Nairobi fashion events several years ago, is it now all but proven that more and more people travel to such shows to see their favourite designers, and also, some admitted that to me, their favourite models – and who can blame them for being honest. People travel by bus and by air across the region and even by ferry when going to Zanzibar and travel after all is part of my daily reporting, so here the bridge spans across the opinion divide, or so I hope, clarifying that issue once and for all.
(This correspondent seen with Sylvia Owori and Ashley Klinger at the Style Lunch hosted by Rio Paul)
But back to Ashley Klinger. She in fact gave a brief interview together with Uganda’s fashion queen Sylvia Owori who herself returned to the place where she earned her first laurels and attention and which launched her into a now well-known fashion career.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PQ_mkC_-kE
Ashley, on invitation from Mustafa Hassanali, the creator and organizer of the Swahili Fashion Week and designer par excellence himself, flew, not herself at the controls this time but as a passenger, from Dubai to Dar es Salaam – Emirates now serves this Tanzanian city twice a day, incidentally with the Boeing B777 – to attend the Swahili Fashion Week and get a close up and personal experience what such an event is like in Africa.
Different for sure compared to her site’s documented visits to Milan, Osaka and St. Petersburg and frankly, so it should be. Africa is known for its rich and bright colours and many of the fabrics used by designers, here in Dar es Salaam and elsewhere on the continent, reflect this explosive mix of in their prints. And here are some of those outrageously colourful creations both Ashley and yours truly saw last night:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJpenIhnit0
With one last day remaining of the Swahili Fashion Week are all eyes now on the awards which will be announced on the closing night and it is understood that over 200.000 votes were cast for the various categories, a sign just how East Africa’s premier fashion event has taken root and managed to mobilize fans from across the region. My wish and best bet is that Sylvia will bag the award she has been nominated for, i.e. Best East African Fashion Designer, but let’s wait and see until the results are in.
