Our second honoree this week is Zambias Top Fashion Designer, Towani Clarke. Five years ago Towani Clarke made the bold decision to leave the corporate world where she was managing a leading law firm in Zambia to follow her heart and give birth to her two business babies, Kutowa Designs and Kuthuta Yoga. Towani is the first of four children of Sarah Longwe, a women’s rights activist and Roy Clarke, writer of political satire. At undergraduate level Towani, obtained a degree in Agricultural Science from The University of Zambia, then worked for several years in the commercial agricultural sector. Knowing in her heart she was an entrepreneur she opted to take a Masters in Business Administration at the University of Cape Town. After a few years of business consultancy she worked as operations manager of a law firm. There, not being a lawyer, she hit the glass ceiling. Assessing the way forward she remembered her aspirations to run her own business and her Buddhist New Year resolutions to start an afro chic clothes label – Kutowa. Since childhood Towani has dabbled in and out of yoga and decided in addition to fashion design she would like to teach yoga professionally. To follow these two aspirations, Towani undertook a teacher training course in yoga and taught herself to design. Five years later Kutowa Designs has grown from being in her sitting room to having her own studio and workshop employing ten people. Kutowa has taken part in a number of fashion shows around Africa from the local Zambia Fashion Week, Origin Africa Designer Competition in Mauritius, Swahili Fashion Week in Tanzania, FIMA in Niger, Colours in the Desert in Botswana. Kuthuta Yoga teaches 11 classes a week out of two studios in Lusaka and has taught over 300 people, conducted several yoga retreats in the nature of Zambia as well as a few corporate yoga sessions.
Posted on: Wed, 13 Aug 2014 15:31:04 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015