Stores Of The Future?

Shops are closing across Africa; still they come like lemmings to a cliff. Entrepreneurs prepared to throw good money after bad.

- Melitta Ngalonkulu

Shops are closing around Africa and yet still they throw more money. Entrepreneur Mbukwashe Zwide is one of them. 

“I took a decision of balancing social media, pop-up sales with brick-and-mortar. This was informed by the understanding of the market. The type of clothing one sells, being vintage, tends to be tricky selling it online, seeing a picture looking all pretty online as compared to seeing the garment and feeling the fabric,” she says.

Vintage-meets-urban chic fashion is her game. Zwide, who holds a national diploma in information technology, ditched her permanent job to pursue her passion for clothes.

“It was then that the fashion bug bit and it was just too strong to ignore and I left the corporate world to pursue what was dear to my heart and soul; fashion,” she says.