The woman strengthening Malawi weddings through her collections: Esther Banda
Celebrating weddings and other equally good days has been undeniable culture for centuries and centuries to come. Big days call for special means of celebrations to live to their billing and they do not usually come cheap.
Such understanding has also been utilized greatly by entrepreneurs who come in to help people have days of their lives. One such a brain is Esther Banda operating her wedding collections joint as E’s Classic, a business she founded with a capital of K200 000 but has grown to be a multimillion venture sending her to as far as China, Dubai and Hong Kong in the process.
As she explains to Nyasa Times, dedicating her life towards such big days has been a blessing on top of being her daily job which rewards her greatly.
“It’s my passion for what I do. I feel so good to see satisfied customers each time I supply my collections to them and I have done a lot of weddings across Malawi, South Africa, Ethiopia, Ireland and UK, among others,” she says of her trade.
Tucked away in a tranquil corner in one of the most expensive estates in Area 9, Lilongwe and another one in Nyambadwe Blantyre, E’s Classic is a stockist of all types of wedding dresses, men suits, shoes for all gender, crowns and tiaras and other accessories.
“I have almost everything for weddings and other well budgeted events. In simpler terms, I deal with event attires. Am a fashion addict myself and my own model, if I wasn’t a collector, I would be a designer,” says Esther.
According to Esther Banda, her wedding dresses are in the ranges of K150 000 to K200 000 depending on design, which is mostly of the people’s preference and choosing.
An award winner in 2 categories herself at a wedding expo held at Capital Hotel in 2018 commenting on the growing market for fashion design and designers, said fashion designers must re-design themselves and their ways of functioning.
This includes a revision of fashion enterprise practices, techniques and critically outcomes, while drawing on fashion’s inventive, practical, and communicative fundamentals.
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