Final major project exhibition – IVHU by Letty Gwanzura
Visit Harrogate Fashion Week, A21 Hall A on 6th August, 9.30am – 3.30pm to view Letty’s work
I am a fashion designer and my main focus is making surface patterns on my fabrics. I use acrylics and pen before putting them on illustrator or photoshop to make the images look better and also to see if the repeat pattern comes out the way I would like it to look on fabric.
My collection was inspired by my Zimbabwean roots and it shows the spiritual connection between music and the soil, hence it is called IVHU.
Ivhu is a word taken from the Shona language from Zimbabwe meaning the soil. We are from the soil hence we are referred to as daughters and sons of the soil. Our ancestors are called ‘vevhu’ meaning those in the ground or the soil, so part of our connection to them is through music with some powerful meanings and the use of instruments like the drum, mbira (lamellphones), hosho which consists of a pair of (mapudzi) maranka gourds with seeds which is played alongside the mbira. My prints are very colourful and fun as I play around with colours on illustrator and photoshop which is one exciting thing about this collection.
