Kagiso Koyabe, is an Economist with a degree from the University of Johannesburg, entrepreneur and designer from Botswana. A South African graffiti artist who told Kagiso about the history of the Hip Hop Culture in Southern Africa and taught him about design, materials and art inspired Kagiso to start an urban lifestyle company called Lucky Charm Creations.
Lucky Charm Creations started out focusing on initial designs for t- shirts as well as customized graffiti apparel. During his timein UJ Lucky Charm partnered in sponsoring with the Hip Hop Association of UJ the annual Break Dance Competition which ran for 2 years, as well as partnering with Film students at UJ together with some from AFDA in organizing the FYTA Independent Film Festival in collaboration with Coal Stove a South African film house.
During his time as a student of Economics, Kagiso worked at building his company and was selling his merchandise at 3 stores in the Melville – Newtown area. Being back in Botswana Lucky Charm has been registered and has started off by working with community and charity projects to generate funds through entertainment and art activities and exhibitions.
Currently Kagiso is working on ways to make an innovative impact through fashion and Art, this has put him on a path to try and research, test and improve the garments and products being released under the Lucky Charm brand, in order to establish his second full line of clothes, beyond t-shirts and plain hoodies, incorporating fabrics (African prints and others) into my garments to make them more comfortable, unique and of a high enough quality to make it comparable to international brands. In the future once the company structure is stable, He aims to convert Lucky Charm into a NGO that will run as an Urban Lifestyle company with regional and international reach, that distributes its Profit to various charities on an annual basis, ensuring that its purpose outlives him. The purpose being to encourage people to Dream, and be Creative in actualizing these dreams, and lastly to Give back to the communities that raised them in order to improve the options marginalized youth have in current times of high youth unemployment and frustrations
Africa Reign means a celebration of African entrepreneurship, talent and drive. I believe that this project can help sing praise of some of the bright stars of Africa and motivate many other hopefuls to continue pursuing their dreams and goals, moreover, this can help us see how alike we are as Youth in Africa, how we share challenges and frustrations, and demonstrate the necessity for African Unity
According to Kagiso the only way for there to be an “African Dream” is for the youth in Africa to unite over its hardships and challenges, and bond together in generating sustainable solutions and options for the development of Africa. This can be done by African to African internships, skills exchanges, regional youth business forums and programmes. In this way not only will we learn tolerance to our fellow Africans, we will also understand their history, their challenges and also opportunities.
The Youth is definitely motivated to provide solutions in developing Africa, but need a high level forum that can engage them on their ideas, and assist them in building them up towards assisting with improving lives of other youth and their own countries.
–What is fashion’s role in developing a better Africa?
Fashion has as pivotal role to play as it is an expression of culture and personality. Culture in itself is dynamic and ever adaptive to innovation and shifts in trends in traditional structures, which are often fused with modern ideas and expressions. this makes the current fashion scene very vibrant and competitive, with more and more Africans going into the industry and more regional fashion shows and exhibitions, Fashion and the creative sector as a whole will have a strong role to play in unifying Africa and giving us an identity we are proud of, to lead us into the future.
Stay in touch with Lucky Charm Creations on https://www.facebook.com/OrganicUrbanCulture
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