The 22 year old Deon Angelo is making waves in the fashion industry of Namibia and beyond and we are ready to watch him blossom into the brand he is constantly working hard to create.

It is 5h15 and we receive a call from Deon Angelo, who is surprisingly early for our schedule 6pm shoot with our ever evolving in-house photographer, TuvaWolf. Running late as is, we hit our panic mode button. Deon still holding on the other end of the line, we make arrangements to getting him to the venue without any of us being there.

Moments later, we find Deon chatting it away with our creative industry friend, Martin Amushendje and all we can possibly feel at this stage is relief. Relief that he was not standing outside the venue in this cold winter or that he was dead bored out of his mind. *spheeeeew

Deon, shows no sign of feeling cold or boredom. So, we jumped straight into chatting about his love for fashion, collaboration and growing his brand.

I have loved the human body from a young age .

He would draw profiles of his mother and sister from a very young age and that love grew to seeing the human body in different shapes, patterns and colors as he grew older. Deon has never really had any other career aspirations but he equally loved to act and sing and also practiced that while growing up. 

Walk us through your creative process? “Well, it is different from one project to another but normally it would involve me sketching out the idea, followed by a pattern and then a sample of the actual garment to ensure quality and the fit”, Deon explains. He then continues to move on to producing the actual garment. 

His inspiration mostly comes from his life experiences. The personal stories that he has encountered in society and while growing up. Personal stories from culture and society he comes from. 

This has eventually inspired his latest collection called “Helao”, which consist of 3 phases, of which he is currently at the second phase. Many would say that the Owambo fabric is Deon Angelo’s signature look but in fact, it is not. All the fabric entails is that, his brand started out with culture which is really important for the brand as that is what symbolizes his roots and has some significance to his journey thus far.

My journey has been incredible thus far, equally so as the hard work I do put in. I do not look back often but when I do it is unexplainably rewarding and motivating to me.

The world is moving into collaborating with different brands to impact a greater audience. Brands in fashion are collaborating with music artists, painters, dancers  you name them. Deon, has made a mark for his brand so much that he managed to score a gig on shooting for an episode with one of the best networks not only in Africa but the world. He cannot say much about it now but when it airs, you will be the first to know.

Adding on collaboration, he has always had a love for Nambowa Malua’s work. “Nambowa reached out a few months ago in relations with fashion and we could not actually do it at the time due to schedules”, says Deon. He then reached out to Nambowa about painting on fabric for the Huawei P20/P20 Pro collection (which they both never did before). Deon, further explains that the experience was incredible and it resulted into beautiful avant-garde fashion pieces.

When asked how he wants a person to feel when wearing any of his garments, Deon, responded with a warm and charming voice:

I want to leave it up to the individual or model. It is usually very visible and if I could think of a word, it would be empowered.

Being environmentally cautious is something we educate ourselves on as a brand to further develop and sustain it, says Deon, he adds that not only do we need to do so within the fashion brands but the fashion industry as a whole. Giving advice to aspiring fashion designers across the globe would be 2 simple words:

Be Original.

Deon Angelo does not have a niche as he does not believe in getting comfortable with life. It is a whole journey full of experiences and he wants to be known for his craft as he effortlessly expresses and pours all of himself into it. He believes Namibia’s fashion industry is growing  and that we are definitely not where we were 2 years ago and that is a great thing.

He further explains that he however,  believes that we do need to take it seriously in terms of having and creating our own aesthetics as fellow Namibian designers.

Talking abut the future of his brand and what looks ahead, all Deon Angelo says after a long sigh is,

A lot, a lot that will be revealed in the coming weeks.


Full Name

Deonangelo Helao Andrew Mathias

Nickname

DE

Best Trait 

Self Motivator

Worst Trait

Constant battle with time

Two things people don’t know about me

I still dance and act

If you could dress anyone in the world, who would it be?

Naomi Campbell.


 Keep up with Deon Angelo on Instagram

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