Kayamandi: Lerato Mtiya

Kayamandi: Lerato Mtiya

Fashion designer

Lerato: Thank you for your interest in my story and craft. My name is Lerato Mtiya, born and raised by my two parents in Whittlesea near Queenstown in the Eastern Cape province. My parents came to Stellenbosch in the Western Cape in the year 1994 with their two children, me and my older sister, searching for jobs. Growing up I never knew that one day I would go into the fashion and art industry. I only wanted to become a police officer when I was a child. But the love for art was there inside of me. My grandmothers from both sides had Singer hand-wheel sewing machines, which they used to make clothes for themselves, and that is something which I believe had rubbed off on me. In 2009 I was just staying at home, doing nothing, when I heard about a basic sewing project presented at the Legacy community centre in my neighbourhood, Kayamandi, Stellenbosch, which got my attention. I joined the training and learned needlework. My dream was to be a successful fashion designer, but I did not know how that would happen. My older sister introduced me to a fashion designer, Lebohang Masoka. I assisted her with sewing matric dresses as well some of her clients’ outfits. In 2010 my sister told me that there was a couple from the Netherlands coming to teach designing at the NGO at which she worked, Kuyasa Horison Empowerment in Kayamandi. The woman taught fashion design and the man carpentry design/woodwork. I then became a student in the fashion side. Danielle Hooijimans was giving fashion design training course and she had contact with Elizabeth, the founder of the Elizabeth Galloway Academy of Fashion Design. In 2012 the academy was searching for someone to sponsor from Kayamandi to study at the Elizabeth Galloway Academy of Fashion Design towards a diploma. I was chosen; it was a miracle for me and I was overwhelmed and filled with joy. I graduated in 2015 at the academy. After graduating I did an internship at Farbe Designs based in Stellenbosch Techno Park and was employed by the same company from 2017 to mid-2018, after which I resigned and started training women from Kayamandi in basic sewing and fashion design together with my business partner, Bulelwa Tito. In 2019 we registered our company as Yeyethu Designer Studio. Our vision is to train people in our community and to create more job opportunities as a clothing and crafts manufacturer in Kayamandi.

Lerato Mtiya, René Jooste