Moshions’ Kwanda season: A journey of hustles, celebrations and jealousy

The journey of Moshions’ Kwanda Season came to an end on March 18, when creative director Moses Turahirwa introduced the last cohort of six designers to the fashion world after graduating to the program’s third and final season. A total of 17 designers have benefited from the programme since it started three years ago and Dan Ngalamurure, Jacques Nkinzingabo are among four Rwandans out of the six training beneficiaries from Kwanda Season while Santrina Nziza, Amir Yazdi traveled all the way from Uganda and Iran respectively for the courses. Presenting her project during an exhibition on the graduation day, Nziza broke into tears of joy, reflecting on how far she has gone trying on new things from her first day at Moshions. Asked why she cried, Nziza said, “It’s a series of things and not just one thing. It’s about so many things that I had to understand about myself being in a new environment and navigating life on my own because you know art doesn’t just come as a figure. You don’t just wake up and make something meaningful. It has to come from your heart.” “I have gone through so much pain because I was letting go of my old self. I had so many things that broke inside me and being here was kind of exposing them.” The Ugandan designer admits she struggled to settle for life in Rwanda as it was her first time in the country and it affected her creative expression during the first days of her training. “You’re coming to a new place, you think you have the energy and you’re broke, you don’t know what to do so...for me the emotions come from maybe here because it was so easy to give up at some point I was like, you know what? Let me just go back home (Uganda),” she said. “But I am a winner, and winners don’t give up, I just had to finish, it doesn’t matter what I was going through, how I was feeling, I had to finish my project and now seeing people trying on my piece looking excited makes me feel really happy I feel like I came as a child and then I’m going like a grown woman now. I feel very powerful.” Just like the previous two seasons, the third and last season closed last week where six designers showcased their creations from idea to the final garment. They later received certificates from French Envoy to Rwanda Antoine Anfre who graced the event representing the French Embassy to Rwanda which supported Kwanda Season throughout the past three years. ALSO READ: LeBron in awe of South Sudan’s Moshions outfits at Olympics, Hollywood stars visit Rwanda and co. Taking example from the just-concluded third season of Kwanda, Turahirwa that the time he dedicated to nurturing fellow designers aspiring to explore more into fashion didn’t go to waste. “We had three seasons of exchanging ideas and how bring them to life. The journey has been really intense to share this kind of journey with each artist and it’s really consuming to go deeper on different aspects each creating to bring what they have as ideas to life and following the same path that I follow always to create connections. To create garments and pieces,” Turahirwa told The New Times. “So, it’s been really intense but it’s beautiful when you see the results, it’s fruitful when you get to enjoy the results. I think every creative journey that is really assigned to a person has its own fruition and the beauty but we don’t forget the pain that comes with it,” he added. He said Kwanda season project has been a very big success to the extent that partners and the beneficiaries alike are proud to have been part of it. “They have their testimonies on where they were in terms of thinking the creative projects and bringing them to life and what they now do better or differently even for other projects to come. They have the package that is a lifetime package to be able to create and have more limitations in terms of ideas and bringing those ideas to life,” he said. Kwanda Season beyond the dorders The third cohort of Kwanda season marked the end of the project for Moshions in Rwanda as Turahirwa looks to expand it to other parts of the world as part of growing the Moshions brand as well. “I am stopping it because I need to diversify and focus on other projects. This was one of the projects for Moshions and I am the creative director, so, I have other commitments this year, I need to also teach somewhere else and take this program to the rest of the world,” he said. “I have been doing this programme in Rwanda. I wanted to do it home first, the first three years but, from end of this year am going to be teaching in other countries.” Challenges Kwanda season was hit by two crucial challenges according to Turahirwa—the understanding and jealousy which, on the other side, taught him to fight for the project until it became a success. He said the creatives are ambitious but the goals are different and left a big gap in understanding. “One challenge is the understanding between creatives and the program because when they have ideas, they want to implement them quickly,” he said. Speaking of jealousy, Turahirwa was surprised and shocked to see some people act against his project when he thought they would be quick to support it. “I pitched this project to different institutions but only the French Institute and the French Embassy endorsed it, he said. And, despite the success of the project from the beginning, he claimed “we encountered challenges like attack to creatives, to myself, to the company and this is what I meant with jealousy, there is nothing to hide. There has been a lot of fights.” “You know, when you have something virgin, something new, it’s always questionable, there are always many debates, but I am grateful that we overcame such kinds of challenges, just to keep the focus on the project and bring it to its success and its implementation.”

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Moshions’ Kwanda season: A journey of hustles, celebrations and jealousy