By Ogova Ondego
Published May 5, 2010

Tanzanians Robi Morro and Jamilla Vera Swai launched their Ready-to-Wear collection at the inaugural Origin Africa Designer Showcase at the  Laico Regency, Nairobi, on April 28, 2010.

A Press Release issued by Mustafa Hassanali of Swahili Fashion Week quotes Robi Morro of Mapozi Designs collection as having said of her ‘Garden of Style’, “The pieces are very feminine, flirty, sassy, colourful and fun aimed at bringing out the woman’s beauty with the use of bold colourful floral prints. A woman is like a flower, she blossom well if taken good care of.”

‘Say and Color Zero’, Jamila Swai’s collection on the other hand, is inspired by her two-year-old daughter’s first school home work. “Her favourite colours being red and black, I decided to work with that by layering them by individual colours, with the print zero,” Swai says in the Swahili Fashion Week Press Release.

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The participation of Morro and Swai was facilitated by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation, the Tanzania Gatsby Trust and the Textile Sector Development Unit of the Tanzania Cotton Board (TCB) through the the Swahili Fashion Week.

The aim of TCB is to to ensure that more Tanzanian grown cotton is transformed into higher, value-added products.