VIVIERS AW24 at South African Fashion Week
Earth-conscious South African designer Lezanne Viviers returned to the South African Fashion Week (SAFW) official calendar, sharing the catwalk with Andrea Adamo to present the trans-seasonal Johannesburg release of VIVIERS AW24 / Autumn/Winter 2024 collection “IN OUR ELEMENT(AL)” within Fashion Bridges, a joint initiative by Polimoda, CNMI, and SAFW.
Johannesburg, April 2024 — VIVIERS celebrated their 5th Anniversary with their Trans-Seasonal Collection, ‘IN OUR ELEMENT(AL)’, at SAFW, as 2023 alumni of the Fashion Bridges Program, alongside Andrea Adamo.
Having emerged on the South African Fashion Week scene through the Fashion Bridges Program in April 2023, VIVIERS returned for the third consecutive season (AW24 collection) to SAFW, reinforcing their dedication to the local fashion industry and their aspiration to create a thriving African fashion community.
The show commemorated VIVIERS’s fifth anniversary with a runway segment as part of the Fashion Bridges show at South African Fashion Week. VIVIERS presented their collection as a graduate from the 2023 program, next to Andrea Adamo, in association with @italyinsouthafrica.
On the Johannesburg catwalk, VIVIERS showcased the SAFW edit of the ‘IN OUR ELEMENT(AL) AW24 collection, first released in February as part of the official Milan Fashion Week Calendar.
“In the spirit of Ubuntu, VIVIERS is proud and honored to continue showing at SAFW in our home city, Johannesburg. The continued support of our community of artisans, tailors, makers, sponsors, and clients, who have all contributed in some way to the creation of VIVIERS, is deeply appreciated and acknowledged. This April, VIVIERS celebrates our ‘Coming of Age,’ our 5th anniversary, with our runway show at SAFW,” said Lezanne Viviers, the creative director and founder of VIVIERS.
The show marks a further step in sustaining VIVIERS’s collective and creative hybrid space called ‘Hub-of-The-Hand’ where the brand collaborates with numerous South African Artisans. They use South African raw materials like Cape Wools, South African Mohair, ostrich products, gold and diamonds, and South African leather, with the idea of further promoting the South African clothing, textile, and luxury industry, as well as preserving South Africa’s heritage of craftsmanship.
Lezanne Viviers’s aim is once again to contribute and establish South Africa as an Eco-Hub or destination for supreme craftsmanship in luxury manufacturing; a country that leads with its slow and conscious approach.
Complementing showcases within a global platform such as Milan with a show within SAFW in Johannesburg is a pivotal element of VIVIERS’s commitment to the South African community and its fabric and craftsmanship excellence. It offers an opportunity to revisit theseason with a more resort, trans-seasonal perspective to connect with the South African audience.
“IN OUR ELEMENT(AL)” SAFW RELEASE – VIVIERS AUTUMN/WINTER 2024TRANSSEASONAL COLLECTION
VIVIERS collection, originally debuted in Milan in February 2024 as part of the Autumn/Winter 2024 calendar, was reworked to showcase its versatility and trans-seasonality. VIVIERS aimed to demonstrate how the same collection could be adapted for both the South African and European markets.
For SAFW, the brand partnered with local stylist Sahil Harilal from luxury jeweler, Charles Greig, to combine VIVIERS’s signature jewelry with classic fine jewelry. This showcased how treasured family heirlooms could be mixed with contemporary jewelry in everyday dressing.
The release also included different style hats from long-time collaborator, Crystal Birch; hats that are more summery and less nostalgic than those in Milan. The overall VIVIERS look was in itself Exaggerated Juxtaposition; traditional and contemporary, Winter and Summer, Masculine and Feminine, all combined to show individual style and preference.
The presentation incorporated more ready-to-wear pieces to highlight the everyday wearability of the collection and to show its commercial potential as explored in this season’s wholesale.
Additional Wool/Mohair knitwear was added in a composition of 80/20 Wool/Mohair, a tribute to their ongoing partnership with Cape Wools and Mohair South Africa. The new knitted racer dress and top, as well as the knitted tailored suit, explored some Signature VIVIERS styles, in trans-seasonal knitted form, in anticipation of the next collection.
The runway show featured a short conceptual video created in-house with original music written and produced by Alessandro Gigli, specifically produced to enhance the concept of the collection. The video depicts a shift in humanity’s consciousness and ends in the blossoming of a white Lotus flower, the heart symbol of VIVIERS.
The show opened with this short conceptual video, further exploring our inner duality: light and shadow, masculine and feminine. Using UV lights, the video highlighted jewelry and clothing details specially styled to be enhanced by this effect. All models gathered on the stage in complete darkness, where the UV lights continued to illuminate the styled elements, setting the scene for the runway presentation.
ABOUT PONTI DELLA MODA/FASHION BRIDGES
“Ponti della Moda/Fashion Bridges, the collaboration between the Italian Embassy and #SAFW. The project was launched in 2021 to foster collaborative partnership between the fashion systems in South Africa and Italy.
The Fashion Bridges project seek to foster collaboration between the South African and Italian fashion industries by creating dialogue between creatives on both sides, hoping they can be inspired by each other’s culture.
BRAND & DESIGNER PROFILE
Lezanne Viviers is a Johannesburg-based fashion designer and the founder and creative director of VIVIERS. Cradled amongst the gold mined caverns of ‘The Origins of Humankind,’ Johannesburg, VIVIERS originates conceptual and Earth-conscious clothing that are homegrown in South Africa, yet clothes that project ideas of universal Future Fossils.
VIVIERS’s clothes could be considered a sculptural juxtaposition of sharp, traditional Masculine tailoring and more organically draped, flowy items, often associated with conventional femininity. The interplay and constant balancing act between these extremes are further explored through our mismatched fabric choices; Organic and natural fibres, directly offset by technical and industrial fabrics, like upcycled Nylon or reclaimed plastic.
From faraway Japan to nearby Europe, VIVIERS blurs the liminal spaces between Sophistication, Disobedience, the Avant-Garde and time.
VIVIERS places the hand of the artisan and artistic practice, at the top of the socially ethical pyramid. We believe that luxury and humanity are synonyms and should be the key focus to co-create a conscious and circular future in the industry.
Humans are dependent on Mother Nature for all of our resources. These resources are what luxury is; resources are gifts from life itself. The one hand washes the other, and beholds the other; we are because of one another. Our studio is rooted in co-existence and mutual respect; both for each other, our materials and how our actions affect the world and others around us. Our vision is to mirror the BEAUTY that surrounds us, our mission, and the demonstration of BEAUTY in the mundane, all through the language of clothes.
Since its outset VIVIERS has created a name for itself receiving accolades in the sustainable fashion world as well as local and international features and press recognition.
AWARDS
2023 Fashion Bridges With Polimoda, CNMI And SAFW
2022 Innovative Design And Materials 2021 TWYG Sustainability Awards 2020 Finalist
2022 Nicholas Coutts Craftsman Award 2021 TWYG Sustainability Awards 2020
Finalist
2020 Glamours Most Glamorous – The Change Maker’s Edition Glamour Magazine
2020 Rising Light Mbokodo Awards Innovative Style Awards Style Magazine
All images VIVIERS AW24 at South African Fashion Week by VIVIERS
Photographer Eunice Driver
PR Agency AKA Milano