Polokwane to Paris for Palse

Paledi Segapo continues to wow audiences from his home base in Johannesburg to Paris with the creations he brings forth for fashion label Palse. During last weekend’s Limpopo Fashion Week in Polokwane he stole hearts with a monotone black and white collection, of which the designs could have brought traffic in a style-starved city to a halt.
Already the opening scene of his collection, featuring a sheer lace tunic for men, announced a bold cross-over between elements and the pushing of the envelope he alluded to in an interview with Polokwane Observer. His presence in the world of fashion is evidently a jam-packed schedule continuously taking him to varying global venues, as was the case last year when his work was showcased across Africa and Europe. After Africa Fashion Week London next weekend he plans to showcase at the Durban Fashion Fair month end. As brand ambassador for a well-known footwear label he will showcase a spring/summer collection in Cape Town in addition, before his planned participation in SA Fashion Week in October.
Among Segapo’s achievements is the vote for 2015 African Designer of The Year during Swahili Fashion
Week in Tanzania. He is further known for dressing local and international celebrities such as Donald, Uzalo’s Kay Sibiya, American singer Kenny Lattimore and Bold & The Beautiful actor Texas Battle.
During the interview Segapo expressed the opinion that while forever having known that he was an artist, he decided to be an entrepreneur in a creative space. He had always been passionate about fashion and continuously gravitated towards the industry unaware, he remarked. He referred to having started off with his label for men in 2010 after his departure from the corporate space as a business consultant, and four years later diversifying to incorporate a line for women in collaboration with Bryants Moore. In the same year Palse launched its first flagship store in Marshalltown in Johannesburg, it was learnt.
Armed with a Master of Business in Leadership (MBL) degree following a dissertation based on Gauteng growth strategies within the fashion enterprise, he also extends his expertise to the field of empowerment. He mentioned that he conducted business seminars for emerging talent to assist them to grasp that the business of fashion was normal business and to make them aware that talent was not enough.
Segapo expressed the opinion that a true creative needed to provoke the eye and creatives often saw beauty before others. Personally he didn’t try to dissect a look but always found something appealing in an outfit, he added. With trends continuously being recycled and making a comeback he didn’t believe in putting down clothes that could have become outdated. He insisted that the eye had to travel in order to gain inspiration and to prevent monotony.
Turning to the issue of singular attention-grabbers he described a floral jacket for men as the all-time favourite he has ever designed. Containing an element of surprise, it had led to an explosion some three to four years back and was now being considered the norm, he mentioned.
Prompted to give his take on local fashions, Segapo said South Africa was a very colourful country and part of an equally colourful continent. He further raised the point that South African fashions had taken a dramatic shift with a lot of influence from happenings elsewhere and international brands trickling down to retail level and through to fashion.
Of the African element he responded saying “We own it”. He reckoned it was appealing when the African look was modernised and made wearable and fresh to the eye. “We all have to borrow from Africa. At the end of the day we get inspired by the world and Mother Africa.”

Story & photo: YOLANDE NEL
>>observer.yolande@gmail.com