After Nelson Mandela Bay seamstress Nombuyiselo Zinco, 46, designed former isiXhosa news broadcaster Noxolo Grootboom’s dress for her final show in April, she received so many orders that she had to make her dream of having a showroom a reality.
Zinco, owner of Nombuyi Designs, opened her first store in Cape Town in June.
She hopes it will enable her to give her customers their orders promptly.
Zinco launched the first Nombuyi Designs store in a business complex in Maitlands on June 30.
She previously designed and sewed at her Motherwell home.
“I had thought about getting a bigger space in a mall so I could employ more people to assist me, but I wasn't under pressure and I hadn’t managed to get what I wanted in Gqeberha,” she said.
“The decision to move to Cape Town and the finalisation of a lease agreement happened in about a week because it was never a plan.”
After travelling to Johannesburg to dress Grootboom, the final broadcast had been followed by continuous calls from people placing orders, she said.
“That day had a huge impact on my business.
“It was trending on social media that I would be dressing mam’ Noxolo, so by the time her final broadcast came everyone was not just looking at her but the much-talked-about Xhosa attire.
“Shortly after the broadcast, I started receiving call after call from people who were not just inquiring but placing orders immediately.
“I returned to Gqeberha with an overwhelming number of orders from Johannesburg.”
She said the increased orders had motivated her to find a bigger space to work in.
When she could not find what she was looking for in Gqeberha, Zinco looked in Cape Town, where her business is already widely supported.
“Even when I was still based in Gqeberha, a lot of orders came from Cape Town, so that was one of a number of reasons to find a store here when Gqeberha didn’t work out.
“I also knew that moving to another city would not mean the end of Nombuyi Designs.
“It’s only a change of locations and my designs are still accessible anywhere, as they were while I was based in Gqeberha.”
Her Cape Town store functions as a showroom and sewing space, and she now employs two people and still needs more hands for the production side of the business.
Zinco started her business in 2012 after resigning from a cashier job with just R435 in her pocket and home-taught sewing skills.
She learnt the art of sewing from her parents, who spent afternoons sewing and knitting items for Zinco and her siblings to sell in the streets of Somerset East.
She moved to Gqeberha in 2008.
“I had been sewing even before quitting my job, but for some reason I didn’t believe I could ever be my own boss as a black person,” she said.
“In 2012, it dawned on me that my siblings were already doing it — sewing and living off it,” she said.
Zinco specialises in Xhosa traditional wear, from head to toe.
Her aim is to get her fellow Xhosa people to continuously fall in love with — and embrace — their culture through clothing.
“I design clothing and shoes suitable for all age groups.
“I don’t want young people to feel uncomfortable with wearing Xhosa traditional clothes because they think it means they can’t wear their high heels.
“If they want to wear high heels, Nombuyi Designs adds a touch of beads to accessorise their shoes.”
Zinco also conducts sewing and beading workshops under the Isandla Sethu Hub.
In future, she hopes to find an even bigger space that will accommodate both the Isandla Sethu Hub and Nombuyi Designs.
The entrepreneur uses her Facebook page, Nombuyi Designs Traditional Beads and Imibhaco, to market her work to customers across the world.
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