The girl raised by sewing machines

Bruce Ndlovu, Sunday Life Reporter 

GROWING up as the daughter of the famed South Africa-based fashion designer Thembani Mubochwa, Evelyn Mubochwa’s toys were the sewing machines. 

These were the same machines that she used to find balance when she graduated from crawling to walking and from the time she was born, her father said, the chatter of those machines was her lullaby when she wanted to sleep or her alarm when she needed to wake up.

“I didn’t really do much in terms of teaching her the skill but what I can say is that she grew up in an environment in which she was surrounded by fashion. From the time she was born, she was around our workspace because her mother has always been my assistant. Evelyn has been present at the studio where we tailor clothes from the time she could see or walk,” he said. 

During that time, young Evelyn’s friends were A-list celebrities, men and women who people would burst out their lungs screaming when they saw them on the streets. 

“She was surrounded by sewing machines and our clients, who at that time were mostly celebrities and thus became her family at the same time. I remember when she was born, Thinah Zungu, the gospel artiste, was the first person who gave her a present. I remember from the time she started learning to walk, or sit up, the things she could find to hold on to were sewing machines and that’s basically how she grew up which has led us to be where we are today,” he said.

With a home environment like that, it seems as if a career in fashion was almost destined for young Evelyn. Her father is, after all, one of Zimbabwe’s foremost designers, dressing everyone from the late Sifiso Ncwane to MisRed and Selmor Mtukudzi, one would expect her to know Chanel, Ford and the world’s major fashion weeks. 

Both north and south of the Limpopo, the Mubochwa name is respected in the world of fashion. For all her father’s achievements, Evelyn now stands on the cusp of greatness.  

The 12-year-old showcased at the Zimbabwe Fashion Week last weekend, becoming the youngest-ever person to qualify for the fashion extravaganza with her Jumbo Collection. The prodigy is also set to showcase at the Mozambique Fashion Week on 4 December. Rubbing shoulders with some of the best designers on the southern half of the continent, it appears as if young Evelyn is punching above her weight. Her father however, said this had been a long time coming, as he decided last year that she was gifted enough to take over from him, as she had an eye for the kind of fashion that he believes he does not possess anymore. At just 12 years old, Evelyn has been asked to step into the shoes of a man who Jah Prayzah tasked as the designer of his outfits on and off stage. 

“There are two things in our industry. There’s being a creative fashion designer, which is the person who can create designs in his or her brain and then sketch them for people to see and appreciate. After that, there is tailoring, which is garment construction, which takes the garment from the paper to an actual outfit that people can touch. This is a skill that one can be taught. I had always told myself that the creative part, is what I could not teach my child because I don’t believe it is something that you cannot teach a person. It has to be in you. What I can teach my kids is to be a tailor because, there’s no way of acquiring this skill unless if you are taught. 

“With Evelyn I was happy to see that in her that there was a creative part which we starting nurturing and grooming when she was around six. Then last year, that is when I decided that it was time for me to decrease for her to increase. I realised that I have been in the industry since 2001 and I have done my part, whether in South Africa or back home in Zimbabwe with the opportunity I got. Slowly but surely you realise that you are running out of steam and I realise that I am not as creative as before. This is a new generation and I really can’t cater for this new market. I had to accept that my child, creative wise, she is brilliant,” he said. 

Ever since he got his first big break in South Africa in 2007, her studio has been a revolving door for some of Mzansi’s A-list stars. The glitz and glamour that her father’s life brought into their household, had a hand in convincing young Evelyn that she wanted to be a fashion designer even at an early age. 

“For me to then discover that she has talent, we realised it when she was 5 or 6. It wasn’t even a big surprise because of the way she grew up and she would also say that when I grow up, I want to be like my father. There were a lot things that influenced her and the fact that she grew up among celebrities had something to do with it because she realised that the people that fans were screaming for, were people she was taking selfies with in the studio. It influenced her partly because she also got attracted to the glitz and glamour of the fashion industry. She also liked the travelling that come with this because together with her mother they would always accompany me to the airport. Kids love flights and I think she thought ‘wow, my father has a nice life because of this character’,” he said.

Growing up, Mubochwa said sewing machines, clothes and threads were the toys that Evelyn and her two twin sisters ever needed. 

“What I did, from very early on, was to buy a sewing machine for her and her two little sisters who are twins and I opened a studio for them at home that caters for them specifically. A lot of kids love phones and they are now different because a lot of what they enjoy can be found on the internet. For Evelyn and her little sisters, these are their toys because they spent a lot of time sewing their own things. 

“So, Evelyn uses these machines as a way of resting from her studies. Even on weekends you will find her working on it. Last year, that was when I decided it was high time that she made a step up because of her level of creativity. I am one person who has always believed that my children should have knowledge of sewing, whether they like it or not. I took tailoring as an essential skill, in the manner of driving a car. I always had the belief growing up that if I had kids, they would need to have this skill one way or another,” he said.