Charles Ssemanda, a 17-year-old boy beat nine other budding designers to the SEED Fashion show prize during the Kampala Fashion week.
The Skilled Expressive Entrepreneurial Designers show (SEED Show) is a fashion project funded by US Mission Kampala in collaboration with Kas Wear under the mentorship of designer Ras Kasozi. The objective of this project is to promote fashion entrepreneurship among the youth in Uganda.
This year’s teenage winner Ssemanda comes from a humble background and was a hawker, selling his father’s goods on Kampala streets. According to SEED’s Ras Kasozi, Ssemanda picked interest in fashion after meeting to 2014 SEED winner Biff Shuba Aggrey.
Ssemanda went to Shuba’s design studio as a cleaner but his enthusiasm led to Shuba giving him free fashion lessons for a period of one and a half years.
In January this year, when he felt he had learnt enough, Ssemanda’s father gave him a room where he started his own fashion studio called Charles Brown Fashions.
As the winner of SEED show, Charles got the opportunity to showcase his collection at Kampala Fashion Week, a full year mentorship from Ras Kasozi and he will also design an outfit to be worn by U.S. Ambassador, Deborah Malac at a high profile event.