Vusumuzi Dube
Robin Muchetu, Senior Reporter
MS Sidumiso Sigoba never dreamt of being a fashion designer but after her mother, a home economics teacher, bought a sewing machine for the home, she found herself and her sisters sewing their own clothes at a tender age of 14.
She never looked back. Now 42, Ms Sigoba is a designer and tailor of note from Bulawayo who has found her niche in making wedding gowns, bridesmaids’ dresses, and the trendy lobola dresses. She also makes outfits for baby reveals, showers, photoshoots, and many more events.
“My mother bought a sewing machine when we were young so we used to play around with the machine sewing things and from then, I took a liking and it grew to what it is today. I did a bit of Fashion and Fabrics at Bulawayo Adventist Secondary School in Form One and Two so from then that is where I learned a few things about sewing,” she said.
Despite not getting any other formal education around clothing manufacturing and taking up accounting at tertiary level, Ms Sigoba said all the things she learned around sewing were self-taught.
However, the passion grew stronger in 2008.
“I started being serious about it in 2008 and it has developed to where it is now. I was employed elsewhere and the economy was starting to shake and I found myself doing a lot of sewing after work.
So, I decided to focus more on that area and eventually I left my accounting job in 2007 and started sewing from home as I was receiving a lot of orders from clients and I was struggling to balance off things and decided to focus on sewing full-time,” she said.
During that time, she started getting more and more orders, she said it was purely via word of mouth that her business was advertised to other people and never used any conventional means to advertise or market her business. Ms Sigoba, however, said in the beginning it was not very easy.
“For the first wedding I did a gown, flower girl and bridesmaid dresses all for free. My sister’s friend was getting married around the end of 2008 so I asked who was doing her dress and she mentioned that she wanted to cut costs by all means so I did the dress for free for her. From then that is when people realised, I could sew a gown from scratch and complete it and things changed for the better from then on,” she said.
Ms Sigoba said a wedding gown takes at least three months to complete and it is no joke.
“I like to give myself at least three months because I have to source the fabrics and accessories and do several fittings within the course of those three months. It takes such a long time because there are weight changes on the brides usually and I give them time to also lose weight or just exercise if they want to do that then after that we work on the dress. There is a lot of detailing that goes into making a wedding gown so it really needs time,” she said.
The response to her business has been overwhelming as she says she is supported by locals a lot.
“When Covid-19 struck I thought this business would crumble but that was the busiest period, there were many small and intimate functions, the lobola and weddings were so many but we managed. I also realised that people are becoming more deliberate about how they look and they now come and get occasion dresses made for them, women now design their own wedding gowns and we sew them.
“The hiring of gowns made women compromise on so many things but we have given them the option to custom make something to their liking that suits their body shape and size,” she added.
Being an entrepreneur that deals with a lot of people she said she does come across brides who do not compromise on their designs and had one that had a wedding gown dress that weighed 17 kilogrammes.
Just like many SMEs, Ms Sigoba said she had challenges in sourcing raw materials.
“I buy my fabrics from South Africa and it is a strain in this line of business. Locally one cannot find all the materials they need and you have no option but to get them from outside the country. There is a huge gap that is forcing us to go and source fabrics and accessories in South Africa. This comes at a cost and I have to go three times a year for materials to cover the brides I have for April, August and December which are the peak periods for weddings in Zimbabwe,” she said.
She said outsourcing materials from South Africa has put extra costs on end products and said if the textile industry could be resuscitated, they could find cheaper materials locally and products also become affordable.
Ms Sigoba said working from home has made her work flexible hours that were not disturbed by the closure of buildings, rentals, and many other challenges.
However, she said she was forced to power their home with solar energy as the constant and prolonged power cuts, vandalism of transformers, and stealing of copper cables affected her business as she could no longer meet deadlines as she uses electric sewing machines.
She said working from home gives her clients the privacy they needed, adding that it creates flexibility as some would want to meet her after hours because of work commitments. She says she can put in long hours while she is at home rather than being confined to a space in the CBD which has closing hours.
She is renovating part of their home into a studio where she will move her craft once complete. She is being assisted by her two sisters on a part-time basis as they are employed as teachers elsewhere and has also employed an assistant who is full-time. @NyembeziMu
Bongani Ndlovu