Kundai Caryn Mangena is a young, vibrant and passionate fashion designer, with emphasis being on passionate. For Mangena fashion isn’t simply something she has a profound love for, but it is a fulfilment of her faith. The way she sees it, her creativity is a God given talent that she hopes to explore to the fullest.
“I stand for making an impact, leaving this world knowing that I exhausted every God given talent that the Lord has given me and one of the ways I fulfill purpose is through fashion.”
Kundai Caryn Mangena
As Mangena remembers it, her first dabble in fashion was in early childhood, emanating from her love of dolls. Using her mother’s offcuts (from her Home Decor work) as source material, Mangena would make different items of clothing for the dolls
“I remember being 9/10 and watching the movie called Barbie: The Fashionista. So in that movie, somehow Barbie would design outfits and they were fairies that would come and just put sparkles on the clothes and the dresses would look extraordinary, and that just sparked a desire in me as a child to say I want to make dresses and I don’t believe in fairies but I believe in God and there’s just something that’ll happen to the designs I create to make them extraordinary.”
Kundai Caryn Mangena
Having always loved sewing even at school, making clothes came easy to Mangena. In 2017 she displayed her first product at the Summer and Style fashion show, where she won the best bag designer award. This gave her a much needed boost of confidence as she began designing clothes for other people. Mangena ranks her mother, Veekee James, and Prudential Gabriel as key inspirations in getting her to the place she is.
While having the honour of dressing several prominent figures, the young designer has been building her own brand, going on 6 years now. It started out as Kaycee Designs, then became Duchess of Africa and now it is known as Caryn Amani. The changes in name have been a reflection of Mangena’s change in philosophy regarding the designs she wants to make. The key to understanding the metamorphosis of her brand, is realising that Mangena uses fashion as a tool for storytelling.
She has gone from expressing stories that are intrinsically about Kundai Caryn, to expressing stories of the world around her as an African and now sharing the peace and serenity she’s found through designing. Currently Mangena’s Afro-couture brand Caryn Amani specialises in ladieswear and bridal wear.
Mangena’s journey hasn’t been an easy one, however. By the time she finished high school, she knew without a doubt that she wanted to be a designer. While Mangena’s mother was supportive of a career in fashion and even invested in machines to help see her dream come true, Mangena’s father felt otherwise. This resulted in him pushing her doing Media & Journalism Studies at NUST university in Bulawayo. However this only lasted 2 years before she finally dropped out and got to pursue her dream with a Fashion & Design program at Chinhoyi university, where she is currently in her third year.
In 2023 the young designer experienced a year of breakout success. She was part of the of The Next Move Mobile Residency (for young emerging designers) by AfriDigital and the British Council. This residency added to her fashion and design knowledge and culminated in her coming up with her own fashion line as a project. Mangena also showcased at Zimbabwe Fashion Week on it’s return after a four year hiatus. One of the leading fashion magazines in Zimbabwe, Mcheno&More, described Mangena’s line as one of their favourite looks on the Zimbabwe Fashion Week runway.
While fashion is certainly at the core of Mangena’s pursuits, the young designer has aspirations and interests that extend beyond it. She sees herself not only becoming a renowned name in the fashion space but being an influence of positive change in communities. Mangena hopes to establish a fashion academy and to capacitate women from poor communities with income generating projects relating to fashion.
Kundai Caryn Mangena is part of ‘Tha Plug In’, a Creative showcase by the British Council in partnership with #enthuse Magazine.
