Mark Twain said, ‘The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.’ A number of years after Rumbidzai ‘Rumbie’ Muzofa was born she began finding out why. Drawn to doodling and drawing designs she soon created her own clothes and began winning costume competitions. Even with this innate passion for fashion, her undying willpower in her academic pursuits became one of the pinnacles of her success as a designer. Against all odds and with some controversy, she successfully influenced the introduction of a new subject, Textiles, in her final year of high school, when no one else was studying it, just so she would qualify for a fashion course in a South African University. She chose to start a trail where no one had walked instead of following well known paths.
Years later, this ground breaker’s profound determination paid off when she not only graduated with a degree in Fashion Design and Technology, but also amassed a collective of 17 distinctions and further received a full scholarship for a Master’s Degree in Fashion. With a Master’s degree in hand, the unstoppable protégé worked alongside one of Africa’s successful and revolutionary fashion entrepreneurs, Nkhensani Nkosi founder of Stoned Cherrie. Seizing her fortune, Rumbie was mentored by Mrs. Nkosi in business and grew in knowledge and experience of the fashion retail environment by working with various clothing buyers.
It was not long before talent, education, work experience, ambition and drive wove together the beautiful tapestry of her brand in 2012. Inspired by the diverse African cultures she had encountered in her travels as well as Zimbabwe and Botswana where she was born and raised respectively, Rumbie by Rumbie explores the eccentric, elegant, rich culture and beauty of Africa in our present day. Africa has paid attention and taken notice. Within a year of launching her brand, Rumbie’s work took international stage at the Mozambique Fashion Week. Following that, she took the Africa Fashion Reception 2014 in Nigeria by storm.
To top those international debuts, Rumbie by Rumbie was selected to become the official representative of Zimbabwe at the World Fashion Week in Paris 2014-2016. This noteworthy achievement exposes her to causes that will contribute towards “poverty eradication by the empowerment and enabling of women in rural and slum areas, specially focused in the African Continent” amongst others such as sustainable and fair global fashion.
South African Fashion Week 2015 judge’s panel nominated Rumbie by Rumbie as a finalist for the 2015 Marvel Fashion Hero Search. As one of five up-and-coming designers from across the African continent who made it, Rumbie’s work was showcased as her own fashion line, completely inspired by Marvel’s iconic Avengers characters, in celebration of 2015’s release of Avengers: Age of Ultron.
The little girl who discovered why she was born became a trailblazer, risk taker and inspiring example of what it truly means to pursue one’s dreams. Like Andrew Carroll she can say, ‘This is a passion I work on seven days a week, I’m in this for life.’