Meet Denise Mulenga (Zambia), Anzisha Prize Finalist

Denise Mulenga has always felt most comfortable expressing her ideas and emotions through art and music. As a child, she would imagine herself on stage, performing music for large crowds -- and would visualise herself in different outfits that suited the mood of the song that she was singing. She went on to sketch hundreds of outfit designs, and by the time she was 11 she was experimenting with colors and different pieces of clothing.
At age 16, Denise decided to show sixty of her sketched designs to her parents, with the idea of potentially showcasing them at a fashion show. Impressed, her parents helped her bootstrap the show, and Denise's label, Den-Shé Urban Wear, was born. Denise worked with a tailor to create the designs she had envisioned: colourful, funky, urban designs that young people would love to wear. The fashion show attracted considerable attention from the Zambian media, who hailed her as the youngest fashion designer in the country's history. Within a few weeks, Denise had attracted over fifty customers to her label, with an average of over two pieces of clothing per customer. A rising star on the African fashion scene, Denise intends to build a career pushing the limits of contemporary African fashion. She already has plans to launch a line of clothing for young men, called Garcon, in 2012.

All finalists, including prize winners, were awarded a US$1,000 prize to invest in their projects and a US$650 technology bursary to be used to purchase computers, software or equipment to help their projects.

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Nonprofits & Activism

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• Anzisha Prize
• African Leadership Academy
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