Lira’s go-to designer Sylvester Falata has traded stitching up ladylike silhouettes for portray as he steps into his newest profession as a visible artist.
Falata has dressed Lira at many vital levels in her profession – most memorably when the Really feel Good hit-maker walked the purple carpet as a nominee on the BET Awards in Los Angeles in 2012, trying ravishing in a beaded purple quantity.
All through his 18-year style journey, the 39-year-old Mahikeng native, underneath his bespoke label Sylvester Falata Atelier, has dressed different well-known ladies, from Miss SA pageant queens to A-list celebs on purple carpets.
“I’ve all the time created artwork, I simply by no means shared it, and till lately, I by no means thought of it as a profession choice,” Falata says of his inventive expression that he beforehand stored personal.
“In 2020, through the pandemic, I began sharing my artwork as a inventive outlet, to maintain myself busy and motivated as a result of no-one was going anyplace. As I started to share it, I quickly bought two items. One thing was occurring – there was curiosity in my paintings, and I may make a profession out of it.”
Earlier than lengthy, Falata signed with a French artists’ company that launched his artwork to a global viewers.
“It was loopy that this was all occurring at a time after we have been underneath lockdown and there was not that a lot motion. The pandemic was a blessing in that I received to excellent my craft and concentrate on creating extra fluidity in my artwork,” he says.
Falata’s style journey started when he switched from an meant profession in regulation to pursue style design two weeks earlier than the beginning of the brand new tutorial yr.
“I visited a design college [the North West School of Design] for the enjoyable of it, and I fell in love with the surroundings and the folks. I believed I’d take a niche yr [from law] and do that to move the time,” he says.
“In my first yr, I used to be a finalist for the Vukani Younger Designer Search competitors in 2005. I then met my mentor, ex-Ethiopian supermodel Anna Getaneh and later Madagascar-born designer Eric Raisina.