How former high school models founded fashion house
Tuesday, November 09, 2021
Some of the designs from The Mysteries. / Courtesy photos.

FASHION DUO Gael Nziramuhindo and Olivier Gahamanyi started their journey in design as models in high school and, today, they co-own a fashion brand in Kigali called The Mysteries.

The fashion company seeks to work on innovative projects to help Rwanda's fashion design industry thrive.

"We started doing fashion in high school, but we were just models at the time," Gael said in an interview with The New Times, adding that by the time they graduated from high school, they had bigger dreams in terms of fashion, which led to the creation of The Mysteries.

Like all starters, it wasn’t easy to find their footing in society, but with their passion, they found more courage to get to what they wanted.

"Sometimes we would have ideas but lack a way of putting it out, creating something from our minds, but with time we found ways,” said Olivier, one of the designers.

With the fashion industry in Rwanda leveling up, The Mysteries aim to bring designs that will make Rwandans change their way of thinking regarding fashion.

"Our designs are a mix of unique classics ad culture style. With this, we will build a brand that will change the way Rwandans perceive fashion in Rwanda,” said Gael.

Having started in 2019, the founders believe that it was good timing since they have been recognized and gained many clients since they started.

"Our biggest achievement so far is more and more people getting know us plus we’ve been getting a lot of clients since we started,” said Gael, "we are now dressing Mcs, artistes, and journalists, it is a big step,” he added.

Even if they got off to a good start, they had to face numerous challenges, but they managed to overcome them all.

The designers say they get inspiration from each other while designing. Also, looking back at the African culture history, they get ideas of different designs to do.

"We live with inspiration everywhere, plus we look up to brilliant people with brilliant minds in the fashion industry,” said Olivier

The young fashion designers who are doing what they love say it’s a dream come true and advise everyone else who loves it to go for it because the sky is never the limit.

"This is a good and growing business, and doing business in Rwanda is the best way to achieve your goals," the fashion designers explained.