. . . launches Seshoeshoe design competition
Mohalenyane Phakela
AVANI Hotels in Lesotho will this year mark Her Majesty ‘Masenate Mohato Seeiso’s birthday in style through a competition in which local fashion designers and all Basotho women in general are expected to showcase their best Seshoeshoe designs in the race for the M10 000 cash prize which will be awarded on 2 June (Queen’s birthday) 2017.
The competition is open to ladies above the age of 18 who are citizens of Lesotho. Each entrant is expected to compete with her best Seshoeshoe design by completing the application form which should be returned with a digital picture of the design.
The application period will commence on 3 April and the ladies can collect application forms from any of the two AVANI hotels and return them before the closing date of 28 April. Applications can also be requested on AVANI’s email address (marketing.vles@avanihotels.com) and can also be returned via the same address. Each application is to be accompanied by the M150 entry fee which can be paid in cash at the reception desk of either AVANI hotels, or deposited into AVANI’s account provided on the application form.
After the 28th April closing date, the entrants will be adjudicated by a panel of judges and reduced to 40. The 40 remaining designs will then be published in the local newspapers for the public to vote for their preferred design. The voting lines will be open from the first week of May till the last day of that month. The 20 with the highest votes will make it through to the finals where they will compete for the main prize in front of the judges at Her Majesty’s birthday celebration to be held at AVANI Maseru Hotel on 2 June.
On top of the M10 000 cash prize, the winner will get to have dinner with Her Majesty, second place will get M5 000 plus an AVANI package (dinner, bed and breakfast) while third place will get M3 500 with the AVANI package as well.
According to AVANI Hotels in Lesotho‘s Acting General Manager, Willem Van Heerden, the idea is to promote and celebrate the Seshoeshoe cloth in conjunction with the Queen’s birthday.
“AVANI is this year focused on promoting arts in the country and we will be doing that in various ways throughout the year including the Seshoeshoe competition which will become an annual event,” Van Heerden said.
“We have realised that Her Majesty wears Seshoeshoe dresses to several events so we thought it best to take the opportunity of her birthday to give a platform to the ladies to showcase their best Seshoeshoe designs.
“Again Seshoeshoe is strongly associated with Basotho culture so we are trying to maintain that cultural aspect in a modern way so that the kids of today can also affiliate themselves with the heritage cloth. We are also quite positive that there are a number of Seshoeshoe designers in the country as we have also seen some visiting the hotels for several functions.
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“Each lady is expected to showcase the modernised design of Seshoeshoe dress which will be brought before the panel of judges to check if it can be shortlisted for the second round. This is the perfect opportunity as one of the ladies might get to design for the Queen who will be there to witness the finals,” he said.
The ticket to the finals will cost M250 inclusive of dinner and entertainment. The proceeds will be forwarded to the Her Majesty’s charity initiative, Hlokomela Bana.
