The Sunday News
MOST successful and rich people in the world, whether business people or celebrities, draw a large amount of their wealth from beauty and fashion products. Think about most of these European based celebrities such as musicians and actors. They own either a perfume brand or a clothing line.
They don’t own these or venture into that business just for the sake of owning one but as a side income generating business.
Last week I came across an enchanting lady, Alice Mthini, who by surprise happens to be the face of Avon in South Africa.
We had a very interesting chat about Avon products, which at some stage I considered expensive, until I went through an Avon product catalogue. The prices for the products were or are rather quite fair.
Anyway, Alice enlightened me on how people, particularly women, could make a living through selling Avon products, while looking stylish.
It’s not just about selling beauty products to enhance other people’s appearance but to make a living and also look good, through the product you are selling. Avon is a beauty company, which was incepted in USA about 127 years ago and it has branches across the world. What this company basically does is that it gives women a chance to work for themselves and enable them to be financially stable and independent.
“Once you are an Avon agent you automatically become your own boss and work at your own time,” she said.
Alice told me that she was on a drive of recruiting agents in Zimbabwe as the idea hadn’t really been considered.
“This could be the first time for Avon to have agents from Zimbabwe and could possibly have an office here. In the whole of Africa, Avon is headquartered in South Africa. I was inspired to come up with this idea after I noticed some fellow Zimbabweans trying to join and purchase the products. Having realised this I took it as my own initiative to assist those needing assistance, in both appearance and coming up with a project to create financial sustenance,” said Alice.
She said she had been an Avon agent for five years now and being her own boss had assisted her in gaining financial stability, which saw her putting her children through school.
“Being with Avon has indeed made my life a whole lot easier. I was in a hand to mouth situation but since I joined Avon my life became a lot easier,” she said.
Avon products cater for both men and women with various beauty, accessories and clothing products. With such an initiative it is possible to be stylish, while making ends meet selling or marketing beauty products.
On another note, last week’s article on Bulawayo Clothing Indaba snubbing local designers received a response from the organisers of the event.
They say they are or were surprised at the article, as they claim to have not snubbed Bulawayo designers.
“This was in indeed the fifth Clothing Indaba Zimbabwe Clothing Manufacturers Association (ZCMA) has hosted. The first, second and fourth were in Harare and the third and fifth in Bulawayo, with the current format being that we host two a year, one in Harare and one in Bulawayo.
This alone should be enough to confirm our commitment to having maximum participation from both urban centres.
“We represent the clothing industry and not the fashion industry, although we have had numerous communications with various entities within the latter. At each of our Indabas we have held a fashion show. Our fashion shows are for our manufacturers to showcase the goods they make, and for student designers from the various tertiary institutions we work with. Only at the first Indaba did we invite local professional designers to showcase their goods and this was only the three finalists from Zimbabwe Fashion Week. Subsequently, we organise choreographed routines for the manufacturers and then showcase the students’ efforts in a competition, which is judged and we award prizes for,” said Jeremy Youmans, the chairman of the Indaba. In the e-mailed response he also said they worked with institutions such as colleges and universities, as students didn’t particularly have a platform to showcase their work.
“The institutions we work with are Harare Polytechnic, Speciss College, Chinhoyi University, Midlands University, Nust and Bulawayo Polytechnic. We only showcase these student designers as they have no other form of exposure at the moment and we see this as a means of encouraging their employment into the industry once they graduate. This has been successful as several of the winners have been employed by the industry. At our event on the 26th September, at Holiday Inn in Bulawayo, there were only two institutions competing, Chinhoyi University and Bulawayo Polytechnic. Of the manufacturers participating in the fashion show, one was from Harare, one was a Harare factory but with an outlet in Bulawayo, and the other 13 were all Bulawayo manufacturers.
“We do promote local manufacturers and support local suppliers where we are holding our events, as much as possible. Accordingly, at this event, all the models, the choreographer, the stage, lighting, DJ, PA system and videographer were all from Bulawayo. The MC was Tonderai Katsande from ZiFM radio who has been our MC for all five events and used as an essential part of our consistent message. The entertainment came from Harare but only after we could not get Iyasa, from Bulawayo, as they were performing in Harare at the time. The tent was sourced from Harare as we could not find a suitable one in Bulawayo. Obviously, all the supplies at the hotel venue were supplied by the Holiday Inn and all international guests stayed in Bulawayo hotels,” he said.
Nonetheless as a fashion institution, it is ideal and noble for it to promote local designers and to host such events. It is, however, essential to include a few developed and developing designers, so as to avoid skirmishes such as the current one.
“At our Indaba, we believe we achieved a lot of good for the country and Bulawayo in particular. It would be a shame to have some of this undone by misunderstandings,” said Youmans.
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