Seychellois fashion designer unexpectedly ends up at New York Fashion Week

General
October 15, 2023

After the World Fashion Exhibition in Beverly Hills, United States, scheduled for October was cancelled again, a Seychellois fashion designer, found herself on a new quest to New York.

Oushna John Labrosse, 33, the owner of OJZ Seychelles, was to attend the event aiming to raise funds to support the cause to eliminate child mortality worldwide.

With this new development, Labrosse searched for other fashion week opportunities in the United States as she already had her tickets.

She managed to enroll in the New York Fashion Week through a nomination that came from the World Fashion Week exhibition, which also published her profile on their website. Even though the registration fee was $6000 that did not stop Labrosse from realising that dream.

With financial support from several local donors, she made a new collection of beachwear and lingerie from fabrics she had purchased in Mauritius when she travelled to get her visa in August.

Labrosse made three pieces of lingerie inspired by the iconic movie Barbie wedding lingerie, three reversible swimwear and two pieces of swimwear made out of 100 percent cotton crochet and coconut shell buckles as a sustainability feature.

“I wanted to come up with something completely new that I haven’t done before. With regards to the lingerie, I thought that since the producer forgot to have Barbie and Ken’s wedding, so I told myself why not do the Barbie and Ken’s wedding lingerie. This concept was well received, fashion TV was inspired by that, they even put out a word for the producers to consider this story line for the next Barbie movie to have Ken and Barbie’s wedding,” she said.

OJZ Seychelles creation made it to the event, which saw the participation of over one hundred designers on September 9.

Aside from getting the benefits of networking with other designers, Labrosse also became known on various media platforms.

She expressed her happiness and pride as the first Seychellois to be featured in Elle magazine, Glamour magazine, and fashion week online magazine and was also interviewed by a Fashion TV channel.

When asked about the reason she started this business she told reporters her life story and that she was inspired to start her business OJZ Seychelles after the death of her daughters four years ago.

She related that with the outfit she wore on that day at the New York Fashion Week, which was one of her own creations a white and black shawl that tells her story.

“My first daughter was a miscarriage, then I had a son who is alive and staying with me, then I had another daughter but she also passed away. The black represents the baby that didn’t see the light but left and the white is the baby that saw the light but also left,” Labrosse shared.

She said that this made her realised that life is too short and as she was about to turn 30 the following year she wanted to do something meaningful with her life and therefore started her own business.

Labrosse said her story got all the journalists emotional and they saw her as an inspiration to others.

Source: Seychelles News Agency