W
e are here to #ChangeTheNarrative, to say to our fellow ladies and citizens of our community, ‘Zimbabwean Men Can Dress’. The movement that we started as a brand, Minister of Whitelinen, exists to accommodate and inspire the Zimbabwean. We learnt that, you cannot be, what you cannot see. Probably the reason why we did not so many fashion-conscious men in our community was because there was no motivation and stimulation for the need to be. We are here as the Dandy Gentlemen to be an example to our fellow men that a good look is attainable; it only takes effort. We are here to be what other men can ‘see hoping that by seeing they will also get an urge to ‘be’. The debut of the movement started right in the City of Harare. We had the presence of Natty the MC, Ben Chest and Tembalami the musician as our guests. I am sure you are wondering what exactly transpires during our flash mobs but let’s get into it. We are constantly gathering men, any men who is willing to come suited and dressed up and we parade ourselves in the busiest places of the town. We walk around to shock and wonder with our mobile DJ to create the hype, photographer and video person to create content. The Harare one was epic with more
than 27 men on the streets. We then have the interaction segment whereas fashion lovers we interact, sit down and know each other. Many thanks to ChopChop Zimbabwe for their good pizza during our interaction. We also made a lot noise and create hype in Joina City when we passed and all this ended with a photoshoot ay NSSA building. The Bulawayo edition was even more epic. We had so many sponsors on board, like Sterkinekor, Smoke House, The Vista, Alhpa Mineral Water, FMG, Barcelos and many others. We started our journey at Barcelos going into unique places like The Vista, Bulawayo Centre, the Tower Block and the Market taking pictures and parading our dandiness. We also felt a deep cultural connection with the city as we had a our signature shoot at the Joshua Nkomo statue. This was even more resonating as our theme for the edition was vintage wear. A couple of designers and fashion icos showed up like Welsh The Stylist, Scarless Designs, Ben Chest, Nceku, DrNash,to mention a few. The Bulawayo opened the idea of not neglecting the ‘interior man’ the inner man. We had motivational session with our guest who happen to prominent people in the areas of business and social impact. Mr. Busisa Moyo delivered a great message as well as Arthur Evans. The event close with a fashion show and a party at Smoke House.
The beauty is all this is as much as we are creating a fashion consciousness, we are as well creating unity withing the Zimbabwe fashion industry. This has become a platform where bloggers, fashionistas, designers, models, fashion lovers, fashion brands and stylists interact and learn from each other. It has become the Pitti Uomo of Zimbabwe and it is not stopping. Our next stop, if it was not for the Covid-19 was going to be Gweru, Mutare then Victoria Falls. One thing we have realized is it is no longer a national movement but a regional movement. We also have come up with a calendar to have the flash mobs done in Malawi, Blantyre and South Africa’s Johannesburg and Capetown. We have our brother Sebastian Mqondisi Ncube as our face in South Africa. The vision is not neglecting the ladies at all, but the brand has managed to established a similar movement under the name Vogue Ladies as @vogue. ladies_zw on Instagram to create the same unity, hype, consciousness and excitement in the fashion industry the same we did with the Dandy Gentlemen. We call out to our fellow Zimbabwean men, brands of all kind to join in, to change the narrative and build the total men together. Our Instagram handle is @dandygentlemen_zw#ZimMenCanDress
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