THE EASY AFRICAN OCTOBER 1,2006 .

Tanzania's doctor of fashion .

In April this year, Mustafa Hassanali launched his African Renaissance collection at the Durban Fashion Week and was the official designer for Vodacom Miss Tanzania beauty pageant, writes John Kariuki .

IT IS RARE FOR MEDICAL doctors to engage in creative pursuits. But for Mustafa Hassanali, arguably one of East Africa's leading fashion designers, skills learned from medicine have helped him curve out a career as creator of modern apparel.

"I went into fashion design as a hobby but I have found myself doing more of it than medical work," says Hassanali.

He says that medical training instills a sense of discipline and also teaches one about the contours of the human body.

Last Friday, he launched his new clothing line, dubbed Decadence. " It is sexy but quite expressive," he said.

At the age of 26, his designs have already featured in nearly all the major shows in Africa. In April this year, he launched his African Renaissance collection at the Durban Fashion Week and was the official designer for Vodacom Miss Tanzania beauty pageant. He later launched a new collection dubbed Allure at the Nokia Cape Town Fashion Week in the same month.

Hassanali works mostly with women's apparel because, he says, women are more interested in designer clothes than men.

Typically, his models are slim but this is mainly for catwalk fashion shows as his real business comes from people of larger body size.

"In Africa, the rich tend to be big bodied and they are the ones with disposable income. They are my main clientele," he said.

This is in sharp contrast to overseas markets where beauty tends to be associated with slim bodies.

From his experience, he says, it will take many years before East Africa can claim to have a vibrant fashion industry. Like other designers from the region, his clothes are not found in stores, but are sold direct to clients. He, however, says that the growth of magazine culture is bound to spar growth of the industry.

"Magazines provide a perfect public relations vehicle for designers and we are all exploiting the opportunity to show off our apparel," said Hassanali.

SO FAR, HIS CLOTHES HAVE been featured in nearly all major magazines in East Africa. They have also had good press coverage in South Africa. He says there are many beauty pageants in South Africa where there is preference for authentic African beauty. He likes the Face of Africa beauty pageant, but believes that the true representation of African beauty is yet to be found.

"I think African beauty is out there in the villages and rural areas, waiting to be discovered," he said.

A Tanzanian of Indian origin, Hassanali draws inspiration from both his ancestry and the country's socialist past, which broke down ethnic barriers to create a harmonious society. He finds the great diversity of cultures in East Africa a resource for fashion designers using culture as the base of their creations.

"We have had overseas designers use Maasai colours and there are other concepts that we can interpret to create our own unique designs," he said.

He is impressed by the efforts of fellow East Africans to venture into the competitive international fashion design market.

THE DESIGNERS HE admires include Uganda's Sylvia Owori and Kenya's Lucy Rao. He invited Rao as a guest designer for his exhibition at the Royal Palm Hotel in Dar es Salaam recently. He plans to have more collaborations with other designers in the region.

"We are all learning a lot through exposure at fashion shows in different parts of Africa," he said.

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