Alex clothing designer dreams big
Budding clothing designer Christopher Magongwa dreams of one day seeing his brand on the rails of leading retail shops in the country.
A young man’s dislike for uniform clothes worn by almost everybody in the streets drove him to personally design clothes that would make him look different from the rest in his street and hood.
But little did Christopher Magongwa know that this would give birth to a clothing label now riding the crest of a wave and taking Alexandra’s vibrant arts and entertainment industry by storm.
Known as Calibri Farri, Magongwa started the clothing brand by making T-shirts for his wear but frequent requests by friends and ordinary people in his street drove him to start a T-shirt hustle.
“It just dawned on me one day that I could make money from these T-shirts as requests grew bigger and bigger. I then expanded and produced them for resale and the guys loved them.
“I then encouraged the guys to wear them when they go to gigs to popularise them. As the demand grew, I then ventured into making jeans that will be worn with the T-shirts and I included handbags for the ladies,” Magongwa (21), a Thembisa-born resident of Alex, told Alex News in an interview.
All this happens in his family home while Magongwa is still at high school at Realogile, using a domestic sewing machine that his grandmother gave to him when she realised his talent and desire to start the T-shirt hustle.
After matriculating in 2021, Magongwa then focused on building his hustle. “I just hope one day I could save enough to buy myself an industrial machine along with a printing machine to take care of decorations and labels for clothing items,” said the self-taught fashion designer.
Magongwa dreams of being a fashion guru and one day sees his clothing label making a break into some of the major retail shops in Mzansi. “I would like to approach various retail shops to see if my brand can also grace their clothing rails.”
The amapiano music duo of Kairo Roughly and Logo Roughly are one of the hot Alex musicians that Magongwa uses to promote his clothing brand, along with DJ Minister Overdose and budding Alex photographer ReLeebs.
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