Globally, lives were altered this year because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The world has had to adapt to new norms and adjust to the ‘new normal’ to maintain stability. The UNDP Zimbabwe came together with some of the best creatives and influencers in the creative industry and launched a digital campaign to raise awareness on Covid-19. We spoke with Karin Evans Coric, the President of Top Model Zimbabwe, the Agency which provided the models for the visual campaign, about their involvement in the campaign, the creative industry, and her vision for the future…
Our involvement with the UNDP “Beyond now; Reimagining Society” Campaign was to provide models for a virtual fashion show showcasing designs from Zimbabwe’s top designers and working with the best creatives in the country on a campaign that is so relevant at the moment. We were very excited to be asked to participate in this league and obviously did not want to miss out on this opportunity.
I think it’s so important for Zimbabwean Creatives to come together and collaborate to grow the creative industry in Zimbabwe. Together we can achieve so much more than we can individually. Coming together has a bigger and stronger impact in spreading the message as well as showing our audiences what can be done when we are unified and working together towards a bigger and better future. Zimbabwe has so much talent and this was such a great opportunity to bring it all together and produce such an amazing campaign.
2020 has been a rough year for all fields and the modelling industry is no exception, the cancellation of events, the lack of advertising, designers not producing collections as readily as normal because of High Street stores and the market in general having to lower their orders as obviously due to lockdown, sales in stores have fallen to a record low.
We, like everybody else as a brand have had to re-imagine life and create a new normal, we are trying to be as flexible as we can to keep our head above water but who knows what the future holds. What we do know is that we have to come together and work for the good of our country in doing what it takes to eradicate the pandemic and ensure that we as Zimbabweans are informed, feel supported by each other and come together to ‘flatten’ the curve’.
The Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting economic shut downs have created unprecedented challenges for the beauty and fashion industry, including declining consumer spending and disrupted supply chains. The situation may accelerate the shift to greener, more sustainable supply chains, which will not only be decisive for businesses, but also impact the future of the beauty and fashion industry as a whole. Improving the sourcing of raw materials with better recycling processes, reducing water consumption and substituting hazardous chemicals with safer alternatives are among the measures that can cut the environmental footprint of the fashion and beauty sector and help these industries to survive in the new business scenario.
It’s so easy to lose your hopes and brood over the negative side effects of any event, especially when as a community we are battling a global pandemic. But for every low there is a high and it’s true that even in this current scenario there are silver linings. Things that we have drawn from this experience is that we were so busy living the ‘life’ that we lost real, genuine moments with our loved ones, you’ve gotten time to spend with your family and plan your work better. This actually helps to build a better future for both your work and your family. With life having slowed down we have found better ways to stay connected with people virtually. We have been forced to be creative in the way we work using technology effectively and to our advantage to make life simpler and more efficient.
Zimbabweans are a wonderful nation of kind, social, outgoing people, I think in a post Covid-19 society, beyond the now, Zimbabweans have been forced to technologically keep up to speed with the rest of the world in order to keep ourselves ‘ticking’. I feel moving forward, this will help us to be more efficient in terms of virtually connecting, making the world smaller and more accessible.
As someone who’s come from being a model to being the President of TOP MODEL the advice I would give to upcoming Models is to go through the correct channels, get yourself a good agency, put in the time, do the training…you need to know what to do, how to work well professionally as well as how the industry functions, which in turn will assist you and your agency advancing you further up the ladder.
I do wear a lot of hats but this industry is my passion and I believe that I put my whole heart into the growth not only of my models but of the industry as a whole.
My late husband was an amazing source of creativity, he had an amazing mind and inspired and encouraged me to explore so many different worlds…so I have to re-imagine my own world and be inspired by ‘my new normal’. I also draw a lot of inspiration from global trends and what’s happening in the fashion and modelling industry internationally.
We are very excited to welcome 2021 and hope and pray that it will ring in with a new energy and be successful for us all. We at TOP MODEL and me personally have some very exciting new adventures planned and will be using the tools and the things we have learnt from this Covid-19 period to better ourselves, our working environment and the people around us.