GALLERY: Enjoy living in clothes
MILPARK – Young designer wants to open a dialogue through his clothes.
Fashion designer, Tshepiso Mogotsi may be young but he is ready for the business of fashion with his label Blanq Canvas.
Blanq Canvas was born in 2013 and is about capturing the essence of women.
Mogotsi said it is to help women find their better selves in clothes. “Today’s women are risk takers, they are very strong and I want to emphasise that strength wherever they go. It’s a persona that says ‘here I am and I look good’ without saying a word.”
The fashion bug first bit the young designer when he was in Grade 12 and designed the matrics’ school tracksuits. He admits, however, that he was never far from the creative world – before he was designing, he was into fine art.
In just Grade 2, one of his pieces was chosen for an international showcase in Taiwan.
In the same year the label was born,[2013] during the International Fashion Sale, Mogotsi also dressed choreographer and TV personality, Somizi Mhlongo for You Spectular Awards. “I got the opportunity to intern with New York designer, Alexander Koutny during African Fashion Week and I learned so much. I also interned with a lot of other names including Wild Fig and Black Coffee and all this time I just absorbed from them as much as I could,” he added.
Tshepy, as he simple goes by, said the one thing that stood out from all these fashion giants was their mantra ‘Quality over quantity’. He continued, “I would rather have five dresses that were made flawlessly than 25 being returned days after purchase.”
From his collection, you can definitely see the designer’s edgy and daring side mixed with flawless and soft material; to create three-dimensional effects. The Milpark-based designer is the first to admit the journey has been a long one. His parents did not initially want him to go into fashion design, to a point where his father registered him for an accounting degree without his knowledge but we all know that the heart wants what it wants.
He is currently the creative director of Anarchy in Milpark and even dressed the CEO of Just Music for this year’s SAMA awards, fast making Blanq Canvas a name to remember.
