Lwando Joko Sipeliti
Some fashion shows offer glamour. Others offer depth. The Glad Rags Fashion Show, hosted at Walmer Park Shopping Centre this past Saturday, managed to do both while also delivering a powerful message about sustainability, creativity and community.
041online was privileged to get a sneak preview of the Glad Rags Fashion Show at the GFI Art Gallery, ahead of the official event at Walmer Park Shopping Centre on Saturday, 2 August.
The preview hinted at what was to come — a show-stopping spectacle where fashion collided with sustainability in the most elegant way possible.
The concept was simple on paper but ambitious in execution. Six of the Eastern Cape’s leading designers Jason Kieck, Kelly Dillon, Carlos Fritz, Morne van der Schyff, Anton Randall and Tham-Tham Uduojie, were each tasked with creating a couture look using only donated waste fabric. No fresh bolts of silk or custom prints, just what the community brought in. Old curtains, faded tablecloths, upholstery scraps. Things most people would throw away. But in the hands of true creatives, they became statement pieces that wouldn’t be out of place on a high fashion runway.
Each designer was paired with a well-known Gqeberha woman, not just to model the garments but to shape them. These weren’t anonymous runway looks. They were collaborations. The designs reflected not only the material but also the essence of the women wearing them; Michelle Brown, Lucia Mtshake-Ntshona, Julie Oates, Zenizole Gqada, Suriya Aroonslam-Moodley and Candice Parker. The result was a runway filled with personality, power and presence.
What stood out was the versatility of the pieces. These weren’t gimmicks or costume-like experiments. These were garments that could live outside of a runway. Multi-use, multi-purpose, beautifully constructed. It was exciting to see how the designers took their limited materials and elevated them into something wearable and intentional.
Understanding the process behind each garment added another layer. Hearing how designers aligned their creative vision with the personalities they were designing for showed that this wasn’t about upcycling for the sake of it. It was thoughtful, strategic design with purpose.
At the heart of the event was Denise Roodt, founder of Glad Rags and The Media Workshop, who made it clear that this was more than a fashion show. It was about transformation — of material, of mindset, and of community relationships. Offcuts and unused fabric that didn’t make it into the garments were passed on to Atlega for Women Projects Enterprise, where they were turned into limited-edition Glad Rags shopping bags, available to purchase as both a fashion item and a symbol of sustainability.
If you missed the show, there’s still more to come. The entire process, from concept to runway, was documented and will feature in a Glad Rags docu-series launching later this year.
The event was powered by Walmer Park Shopping Centre, GFI Art Gallery, The Media Workshop, Go Viral and Cube Root Productions, with Bliss Hair and Beauty providing final styling touches.
Fashion has always been a reflection of the times. In a world where excess is being replaced by intention, Glad Rags offers a blueprint for what fashion can be, grounded, collaborative, conscious and still utterly breathtaking.
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