- Congolese fashion designer Anifa Mvuemba held a virtual show for her latest collection, inspired by the clothes that women wore in her native country
- The 3D-animated event was watched by tens of thousands of people, and Mvuemba says she ‘didn’t know that it was going blow up the way it did’
US-based Congolese fashion designer Anifa Mvuemba was excited about debuting her fashion line, Hanifa, at this year’s New York Fashion Week.When her show was cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic, Mvuemba got creative.The 29-year-old designer held a virtual show on May 22 for her latest collection, called “Pink Label Congo”, and the 3D animated event was watched by tens of thousands of people who streamed it on her Hanifa Instagram Live page.
“We didn’t know that it was going blow up the way it did. We were not prepared for this at all,” she said via a video-call interview at her offices in the US state of Maryland.
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But the virtual show required more work, including transforming each garment into a 3D image and using the body of an avatar to tailor the item with precise measurements.
“We had to make sure that it matched the realistic garment. We had a really hard time making sure that a dress flowed naturally like how it would if a curvy woman was wearing it,” she said.
Mvuemba said her collection was inspired by the clothes that women wore in her native country, adding that she also wanted to raise awareness of child labour within the Democratic Republic of Congo’s coltan mining industry through her work. Coltan is a metallic ore which, when refined, is used in electronic devices.
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Hey, just came on here to say Black Lives Matter and I’m hopeful for our future. Let’s keep going ?
ome human rights groups have said that children are often employed in the country’s mines. The head of mining in one of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s main coltan-producing region said last year that the practice there had mostly been eliminated.A mini-documentary about the country was shown at the start of Mvuemba’s show.
She plans to do more 3D shows, but would still like to see her designs showcased on a real catwalk, saying she still loved working with real models.
