La'Khanyi...the origin

So let me introduce myself, my name is Leslie-Anne Khanyisile Ncube. I'm a 26 year old designer who started designing at the age of 6. When I say I started designing at 6 it isn't one of those prodigy designer stories, where I was behind a sewing machine and executing flawless garments. No...my mother wasn't about to risk me sewing my fingers, so I started off with tapestry needles. For those of you who don't know what those look like, just picture the most blunt needle you can think of, the type of needle that wouldn't be able to prick you if you lost it (well that's at least how my mother put it). My mother is a fashion and design lecturer who had me unpicking garments and making gathers for her fashion show clothing at a young age. I would collect scrap fabric which was left over from her sewing projects and start my own little projects. Art students or design students will know that art is meant to be critiqued. So little 6 year old me, received equal treatment and was told where I needed to improve my hand sewn doll outfits.

The moments that led me to starting my own line are not very methodical. Simply put, I started honing in on my drawing skills in the first grade, which would be around 6. I then started hand sewing doll clothing at the same age too. Drawing took up most of my years because it was a great way to express my creativity and it didn't cost so much. I ended up being self taught because the arts and sciences were opposing disciplines in the schools I went to, so it just made sense to me to take up something I wouldn't be able to teach myself.

In 2009 I found myself at the University of Witwatersrand studying a BFA in Fine Arts, taking a version of a gap year that African parents understood, which was being in school (yup! it defeats the whole purpose but try explaining that to a university lecturer aka parent). I learnt a lot during my 'gap year', and this lead me to the University of Pretoria where I started my BCom in Tourism Management. I was convinced that a business degree was a safe bet.

During my time in Pretoria, I got my first sewing machine and started experimenting on different techniques I had seen and heard of. I initially started off sewing clothes for myself, which helped me gain confidence in my ability. I then went on to teach my friends what I had learnt.

In 2015 when I decided to start the line, I had graduated with my BCom Honors in Tourism Management and found myself job hunting like everyone my age. I had plenty time on my hands and so I decided that it was the perfect time to experiment with different mediums and follow what I was passionate about, which was the arts. I leveraged what I had learnt from my studies and combined that with what I was passionate about.

Handmade jewelry was the birth of my portfolio, which lead to me opening my facebook page so I could share my designs with the world. June 2015 is when La'Khanyi officially started, not in some fancy design studio, but in my bedroom in Swaziland. Later moving to South Africa and then the United States. My designs are inspired by African culture, drawing from what I learnt when I lived in Zimbabwe, Swaziland and South Africa during my formative years. At the same time they lean towards Western and European designs because of having been exposed to this through travel, the media or having relocated to these places at a point in time.

My mission is to have people from different places and cultures, connect through fashion. I aim to make you feel like Royalty by offering you custom made designs, where you can dream it and we can make it. You get to -Treat yourself like Royalty-.

#lakhanyi #designer #LeslieAnne