Sandra Muendane, Arise Africa Fashion Week Designer 411

Sandra Muendane is a Mozambican designer who studied fashion in Lisbon, Portugal. Since graduating she has gained valuable experience in the fashion industry, working in France, South Africa and the USA. In 2007 she was the winner of the ‘Africa in Style!’ competition at the International Festival of African Fashion in Niamey, Niger.

Sandra sees fashion as conceptual and functional – a complex visual communication influenced by cultural, political and economic associations. Her prêt-a-porter garments are “interactive” in that the original ideas behind them are open to the wearer’s interpretation and adaptation, thus making fashion a vehicle of creative collaboration. Minimalism and an absence of colour prevail providing a fresh yet subtle aesthetic for the discreet woman.

Sandra Cardoso Muendane was the first designer and the first African to chosen as the Duncanson Artist-in-Residence at the Taft Museum of Art in Cincinnati, USA. She was selected because “Muendane conveys social messages through her designs”. Her winter 2008 ready-to-wear collection was shown in silence, “like a screen of pain and social degradation.”