Yetty D. Designs, BiriBelle + Mustafa Hassanali

Happy Friday! Keep it locked on Ladybrille as we bring you the finale of NY Fashion Week, we are all dying to see what P. Diddy does with his only Black Models Fashion Show. Meanwhile, here are some interesting emerging and established African designers to check out:

Nigeria's Yetunde Ogunnubi of Yetty D. Designs: [S]tudied Business Administration, but her love for art came from her parents who are well known artists and mosaic designers (K.NATHA) in Nigeria. She is an [emerging] fashion designer fusing her artistic talents with fashion. In the past year, her focus has been customizing one-off piecies T-shirts with her original designs. Yetunde has participated in a number of fashion shows [and] has also been commissioned to make personalized T-shirts for a number of businesses including Mahogany Models 'Top Model of Colour' TMC, Tinubu Square Restaurant(UK), TL Couture(UK)to name a few. [H]er hobbies include singing, writing, dancing, making friends, swimming, and playing board games. [H]er goal for now is to design T-shirt collections for designers and high street shops such as Gucci, Tommy, Topshop,Topman, H&M, Miss Selfridge; and [one day] own her clothing shops with her line of limited edition clothings and accessories in the nearest future.

BiriBelleby Madia Willis: "The name BiriBelle is derived from the ancient Twi (a Ghanaian language) word for "black" and the French word for "beautiful." BiriBelle clothing grew out of a study abroad trip to Ghana, West Africa in 2003. Hours were spent shopping in the market, looking at yards of colorful fabrics and beads. We learned about how these fabrics were made and the meanings of the adinkra symbols that adorn a vast majority of them. The BiriBelle logo is a derivation of the adinkra symbol hye wonhye (pronounced shay wo en shay). It is a symbol of permanence and can be loosely translated to mean "unburnable." Armed with American and European fashion magazines and our own sense of style, the designers created an African wardrobe based on modern and vintage styles. The results were overwhelmingly popular back home in New York, Washington, DC, and in Los Angeles. After being asked to do a fashion show our personal wardrobes, we knew we were on to something...and thus, BiriBelle was born."



Tanzania's Mustafa Hassanali: "[i]s also a Medico, but pursuing fashion as a career. His collections have been shown widely throughout Africa and Italy, and his work, features detailed beadwork and embellishments. His work has been showcased at the Cape Town fashion Week, Vukani Fashion Awards in Pretoria, Miss Ethiopia Beauty pageant, Mediterranean Fashion Festival in Sicily, Italy and Uganda and Kenya Fashion Week, as well as signature shows in Tanzania. His work has been featured in several African magazines including The East African, African Woman, Kenyan Cosmopolitan, and Bang Magazine. Hassanali has also been featured on CNBC Europe, MNETS studio 53, SABC Africa and East Africa.


By the way, Mustafa is asking you to spice up your life this VALENTINE's with his First Collection, PILIPILI, for the year 2008 on Saturday February 9 at the Moevenpick Royal Palm, in Tanzania. "PILIPILI is inspired with Love! PILIPILI known to many as Chillies comes in various colour, sizes and shapes not forgetting the intensity of it being hot."

"This Collection exudes confidence, love, warmth, elegance, glitz, glamour and romance. This collection is styled to its perfection," says Hassanali.

He is also debuting a jewelry line called "Truly Shangaliscious." Expect to see one of Tanzania's respected designers Khadija Mwanamboka, who is also the Chairperson of Tanzania Mitindo House, an NGO catering for Orphaned children. Models from the hit reality TV search for the next FACE of TANZANIA will also be gracing the catwalk along with Redds Fashion Ambassador 2007 Victoria Martin.

Entrance is only Tsh 20,000 which includes entry Tickets to the VIP After Party By Spoilt4Choices.