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chakirra claasen
designer
TRENDY
The fashion guest of Flashmag! This month come from one of the quietest country located in the southern part of the African continent. Chakirra Classen is from Namibia; she’s more and more becoming a brand name in the fashion sphere. She has won many accolades in the fashion scene. Mastering the craft of designing, and passing it over to younger generation since she also holds a position of teacher in the university of Namibia in Windhoek. In a cozy interview she tells us more about her person and craft.
Hello Chakirra, it’s a pleasure to have you as the fashion guest of Flashmag this month.
First a question for sure you have answered before what brought you to fashion? Why did you choose to be a fashion designer, was it something you dreamed of while growing up?
Being creative has always been part of my DNA, but being a fashion designer was not always something that I dreamt of. I actually wanted to become a graphic designer and actually went to university to peruse that option. It was during this time that I was exposed to the idea of fashion design as a career. I then perused both options until I actually had to make a choice of what I wanted to do for a living and fashion design won hands down, but it still provided me with many opportunities to peruse my passion for graphics. I did however make my first garment when I was still in school and helped many friends with design ideas through illustrations many years before I thought of fashion design as a career.
Namibia is well known for the German colonization and its diamonds, I’m tempted to ask, what is the place of fashion in your country of origin?
Yes, Namibia is a German colony and it is evident in a lot of our architecture in our capital city Windhoek, as well as a beautiful coastal town called Swakopmund. The German language is also still widely spoken by many Namibians.
Namibia is very unlike the rest of Africa, because of our unique history as a country and small population of only 2, 5 million people. Because Namibia was never an industrialized country, in terms of fashion, we never grew up with products that were authentically Namibian as we mostly relied on imports from other countries. This is still the case today, and it is quite tough to be a fashion designer in Namibia, because we have to still compete with the many foreign chain stores that sell trendy clothing of decent quality at an affordable price. We also still rely on imported fabrics with high import costs resulting in many of us catering for an exclusive high end market. However, all of this does not have to be seen as doom and gloom as our unique situation
Flashmag June 2018 www.flashmag.net