Zimbabwe: ‘Mugabe worksuits’ new fashion trend

A HEAVY-duty worksuit that is emblazoned with the signature of president Robert Mugabe is the latest fashion craze in Zimbabwe – and the designers claim orders are flooding in from outside the country.

Designers James Pande and Herbert Huruba say young Zimbabweans can’t get enough of their worksuits – even wearing them to football matches.

“What surprised us was the overwhelming orders and interest of people in the [suits],” said Mr Huruba, of local fashion house Hovhorosi $tyle.

“Currently we are seeking to fulfil an order we received from Scotland showing that we have gone platinum since our inception in the fashion industry,” he told the local Standard newspaper yesterday. It was not immediately clear which Scottish company has placed the order.

Available in green, yellow, orange, red and white, the one-piece worksuits were originally designed for delegates attending a conference of Mr Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party last year and bear the 89-year-old president’s signature across the front.

At £20 each, the overalls are not cheap in a nation where many earn less than £200 a month. Fans can purchase a matching beret for £7. Promotional materials show models pairing the overalls with stilettos, knee-high boots and the dark glasses Mr Mugabe favours.

Agents are selling them across the border in Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa, the ­designers claim.

They say the overalls will promote “solidarity and unity”, a catchphrase for Mr Mugabe’s dream of a one-party state.

But critics say they are being used to rebrand the octogenarian dictator ahead of elections this year – and warn that survivors of the last violent elections in 2008 may find them ­intimidating.

Youth militias dressed in not-dissimilar green uniforms rampaged through Zimbabwe’s rural areas after Mr Mugabe lost the first round of voting in March 2008, attacking anyone suspected of supporting Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change party.

Read more: http://www.scotsman.com/news/odd/zimbabwe-mugabe-worksuits-new-fashion-trend-1-2945163