With their short hair, casual style and youthful faces, sisters Beatrice and Delphinah look strikingly similar.
“Lauretta is in South Africa, studying computer games,” Beatrice explains her absence as the two sisters sit down to coffee on the beach on a Sunday afternoon.
Despite the fact that Angolan women’s magazines Caras and Caju have designated them as one of Angola’s most influential fashion labels, they make an unassuming, almost shy, first impression.
Beatrice, Delphinah and Lauretta grew up in Botswana and Namibia. Beatrice studied interior design in Cape Town, Delphinah studied economics in Namibia.
Sometime in 2001, Delphinah made a skirt that changed her life and that of her sisters.
“My fellow students really liked that skirt, so I started making denim ones for them. That same year, we launched our own label, GSquare. We even created our own model agency, with 30 male and female models,” she says.
“In the beginning it was just the two of us,” Beatrice says, “but we were soon joined by one of Delphinah’s friends. I designed and made men’s clothes, Delphinah women’s clothes. The men’s label was put on hold, but we’ll relaunch it next year.”
In 2001, GSquare won the Young Entrepreneurs Prize at the Namibian Entrepreneurs Competition. Soon afterwards, Delphinah’s friend quit.
“That’s when Delphinah, Lauretta and I launched our own label: Geraldo Fashions. It is named after our late father, who was an artist, painter and carpenter,” says Beatrice.
“We’ve now got American, German, South African and Namibian clients,” Delphinah says, “as well as Angolan celebrities.”
TV presenter and model Vania Vilèla, for instance, is the current ‘face’ of Geraldo Fashions. So are singer and Big Brother Africa reality TV star Tatiana Durao, Big Brother Africa star and Channel O presenter Weza Silva, and Angolan top model Karina Silva.
International fashion shows form an integral part of the Geraldo sisters’ business. In 2002, the Geraldo sisters participated in the Pan African Fashion Show. That same year, they were elected Best Young Namibian Designers by an international judging panel at the fashion show, Sense of Africa.
Three years after Beatrice and Delphinah moved back to Angola, their label participated in the seventh edition of the Angola Fashion Week in 2008. Geraldo Fashions was also represented at the Angola Fashion Week in 2009, 2010 and 2011. In October 2011, Geraldo Fashions participated in Luanda’s second edition of Fashion Business Angola.
“That’s the biggest fashion event in Africa, with 26 international and nine Angolan designers,” says Beatrice.
There are other high-profile events scheduled for 2012: the Swahili Fashion Week, Cape Town Fashion Week, and Mozambique Fashion Week. The Geraldo sisters also hope to participate in the next Africa Fashion Week.
Geraldo Fashions is still small. Its current annual turnover is a little less than $70,000, compared to $10,000 in the first five years of its existence. So far, neither economic crises nor Chinese or Angolan competition have got in the way.
“We’re too small for recessions to have a significant impact,” Beatrice says, “but we do compete against Angolan boutiques, which often sell very nice Brazilian and European labels.”
Beatrice, Delphinah and Lauretta have funded their entire business themselves. They started their fashion career with one manual sewing machine.
“We only bought our first electrical machines after our first official show, which left us with many new clients. Now that we’re successful, we still make all our clothes ourselves, at home. Our brand is very exclusive, and all our work is based on private orders,” says Beatrice.
The sisters buy most of their fabrics in South Africa, Namibia, Portugal and France. Silk and chiffon are among their favorites, as are feathers, fur and laces. Daring, detailed tailoring, with a wide array of colors, mark their designs.
Those who want to wear Geraldo Fashions’ exclusive designs and materials have to place a personal order. The label is no longer sold at Cape Town designer boutiques Second Time Around and Loulou Store, but the sisters are currently trying to open their own shop in Luanda instead. Their fashion items don’t come cheap.
“But they are affordable by Angolan standards,” Beatrice says. “A dress will cost you between $350 and $700.”
The sisters’ ambitions don’t stop here. Future plans include Geraldo Fashions shops in Namibia, South Africa and outside Africa, and an accessory line with jewelry and shoes.
Geraldo Fashions seems to have been born at the right time. “Our fashion has a modern African feel, for which there is an increasing demand. We see more and more people wearing national designers at events, parties, clubs and restaurants, and also in African magazines. Four or five years ago, Angolan labels were almost non-existent in people’s daily lives,” says Beatrice.