Gert-Johan Coetzee (born 18 November 1987), is a South African fashion artist. His fashion atelier is based in Linden, Johannesburg in Gauteng province. He specialises in couture red carpet gowns, he also designs ready-to-wear range . Coetzee is known for dressing South African and international celebrities at red-carpet events. [1]
Coetzee was born in Koster, North West Province. His love for fashion started at a very early age, and when he was in Grade Two he told his mother that one day he was going to be a famous fashion designer. He attended Koster primary school until Grade Four and then was home-schooled. As a young boy in school he used to dress his pencils up in tissue paper and by the age of sixteen he started studying at the North West School of Design. He graduated from NWSD in 2005. [2]
During Coetzee's second year at college (2004) he won the High Fashion Award at the annual Vukani Awards. This is where he was spotted by the television personality Sandy Ngema. [3] He dressed her for the red carpet at the Durban July Handicap premier horseracing event that year and also went on to dress her for two seasons as presenter of the SABC3 reality TV series Strictly Come Dancing. In 2006, at the young age of 19, Coetzee was named South Africa's Most Promising Designer at the Cape Town Fashion festival. [4] His first commercial venture was as partner in the Diamond Face Couture label with businesswoman Uyanda Mbuli which launched in 2006. [5] He went on his own in 2010 and launched Gert-Johan Coetzee Pty Ltd at the age of 22. He has since shown his collections at South Africa Fashion week [6] as well as showcasing his work at international Fashion Week shows in Canada at Vancouver Fashion Week, Angola and Nigeria. His couture designs are worn at all major fashion events including the Durban July Handicap, J&B Met, SA Music Awards, Huisgenoot Skouspel, You Spectacular and Miss World. His gowns have been worn by presenters of popular TV shows such as Strictly Come Dancing and Top Billing. [4] Just a year into establishing his own label Coetzee achieved a celebrity coup when international TV stars Kourteney Kardashian (Keeping Up with the Kardashians). [7] and Kristin Cavallari (The Hills) [8] wore GJC dresses on the Hollywood red carpet. He subsequently also dressed soap opera star Arianna Zucker (Days of Our Lives) in 2012, [9] and Kelly Rowland, (in 2013, at the 40th anniversary of the Ms Foundation for Women in Beverly Hills, in honour of its founder Gloria Steinem. [10] Coetzee has a long list of high-end clients and celebrities including such notable figures as Revlon Ambassador Bonang Matheba, Pabi Moloi, Tamara Dey, Lira, Liezel van der Westhuizen, Cindy Nell, Terry Pheto, Tatum Keshwar, Kerry McGregor, Louise Carver, Doreen Morris as well as several influential women in politics and African royalty. [11] Coetzee is also the first South African Swarovski brand ambassador. [12] Coetzee is interested in technological advances in fashion and constantly pushes the envelope in his collections. In April 2013 he was the first South African fashion designer to utilise hi-tech 3D-printing technology in his SA Fashion Week Spring Summer 2013 "sea urchin" collection. He collaborated with the Vaal University of Technology on the technical side, to render and print three-dimensional embellishments to incorporate into the garments. [13] Then in October 2013, at the next SA Fashion Week, he looked to new technologies again and collaborated with photographer Nicole Phillips to captured his all-pink Autumn Winter 2014 collection with never-before seen in South Africa time-slice fashion photography on an intricate set using 40 cameras firing simultaneously. [14]
Coetzee believes in "fashion with a conscience" and is known for using his platform and voice as a celebrity designer in the media to bring attention to social issues, mainly concentrating on women. Coetzee first launched this concept in September 2012 when he met Thando Hopa, a prosecutor with the National Prosecuting Authority, who has albinism and whom he convinced to become the face of his new collection. Hopa had never modelled before but her appearance on the catwalk at SA Fashion Week in GJC caused a stir in the fashion industry. [15] In the process GJC and Hopa raised awareness of the plight of people with albinism who still face superstition and discrimination in Africa. The partnership between GJC and Thando Hopa endures and she has since become a spokesperson for people with albinism. [16] In April 2013 Coetzee partnered up with Shout, the South African anticrime organisation and dedicated his Spring/Summer 2013 "sea urchin" collection to women victims of violence, in protest against the high levels of violence against women in SA society. Inspired by the protective, dangerous spines of the fragile sea urchin, he created 3D-printed spikes which embellished his garments symbolising armour-like wearable protection for women. [17] Then for his "all pink" Auntumn/Winter 2014 SA Fashion week collection he dedicated it to breast cancer awareness. For this collection, Gert-Johan Coetzee partnered up with the organisation The Pink Drive, which is a mobile organisation that brings breast cancer awareness to the public and testing facilities via trucks with built in equipment. The message he wished to convey through this couture range is "take charge of yourself". [18]
Jean Paul Gaultier is a French haute couture and prêt-à-porter fashion designer. He is described as an "enfant terrible" of the fashion industry and is known for his unconventional designs with motifs including corsets, marinières, and tin cans. Gaultier founded his eponymous fashion label in 1982, and expanded with a line of fragrances in 1993. He was the creative director for French luxury house Hermès from 2003 to 2010, and retired following his 50th-anniversary haute couture show during Paris Fashion Week in January 2020.
John Charles Galliano is a British fashion designer born in Gibraltar. He was the creative director of his eponymous label John Galliano and French fashion houses Givenchy and Dior. Since 2014, Galliano has been the creative director of Paris-based fashion house Maison Margiela. Galliano has been named British Designer of the Year four times. In a 2004 poll for the BBC, he was named the fifth most influential person in British culture.
Balenciaga SA is luxury fashion house founded in 1919 by the Spanish couturier Cristóbal Balenciaga in San Sebastian, Spain. Balenciaga produces ready-to-wear footwear, handbags, and accessories, and licenses its name and branding to Coty for fragrances. It is currently owned by the French corporation Kering.
Elie Saab is a Lebanese fashion designer.
A fashion show is an event put on by a fashion designer to showcase their upcoming line of clothing and/or accessories during a fashion week. Fashion shows debut every season, particularly the spring/summer and fall/winter seasons. This is where designers seek to promote their new fashions. The four major fashion weeks in the world, collectively known as the "Big 4", in chronological order of their eponymous fashion weeks, are those held in New York City, London, Milan, and Paris. Berlin fashion week is also of global importance.
Zuhair Murad is a Lebanese fashion designer. He was born in Ras Baalbek, Lebanon.
Georges Chakra is a Beirut-based Lebanese haute couture fashion designer. Georges Chakra first established his brand in 1985, and he has displayed his cultural collections at Paris Fashion Week since the mid-1990s.
Giles David Deacon is a British fashion designer, Creative Director and Founder of Giles Deacon group, a fashion enterprise. Deacon joined the Paris Fashion Week in 2016. Deacon has been known to challenge the traditional ideas of womenswear and often uses wild prints and pop culture references in his designs. Deacon was employed by the fashion houses Bottega Veneta and Gucci, before founding his own label, GILES, in 2003. He launched his first collection for GILES at the 2004 London Fashion Week and was named "Best New Designer" at the British Fashion Awards.
Hendrik Meyer-Vermeulen is a South African Couturier and fashion designer, specialising in Haute Couture and Corsetry as well as a singer-songwriter performing under stage name Joh Urban.
Davit Komakhidze known as David Koma is a Georgian fashion designer based in London, England.
Kristian Aadnevik is a London-based Norwegian fashion designer, who graduated from Royal College of Art in 2002.
Bowie Wong is a Hong Kong-born Australian fashion and stage designer.
Éric Tibusch is a French artistic director, couturier and fashion designer. Tibusch was raised in Bonifacio, Corsica. He spent his childhood between Corsica and Tahiti prior to his education in France.
Jovani Fashion, Ltd. is a fashion house focusing on the prom and evening wear sectors. It was founded in 1983, in New York City.
Paul Sebastian Vasileff is an Australian fashion designer who is the founder and head designer for Paolo Sebastian, an internationally known atelier based in South Australia.
Paolo Sebastian is an Australian fashion house, founded by designer Paul Vasileff. The atelier is located in South Australia, and the label is known for creating designs featuring intricate details and honouring the traditional methods of craftsmanship.
AndreSoriano is an American fashion designer, specializing in couture and wedding gowns. He is also a reality television star and a supporter of former United States president Donald Trump.
Thando Hopa is a South African model, activist, and lawyer. She is the first woman with albinism to be on the cover of Vogue.
The Ivory Jean Paul Gaultier dress of Marion Cotillard refers to the custom white and silver mermaid dress worn by Marion Cotillard at the 80th Academy Awards on 24 February 2008. It was designed by Jean Paul Gaultier and custom made for Cotillard. A golden version of the dress was presented on the catwalk at Jean Paul Gaultier's Spring/Summer 2008 Couture Show during Paris Fashion Week on 23 January 2008.
Maison Schiaparelli is a haute couture house created by avant-garde Italian fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli in 1927, and moving towards luxury ready-to-wear after being bought in 2007 by Diego Della Valle. The house is famous for its eccentric fashions, the use of Surrealism in its collections, its sense of humour, the "shocking Pink" color, gender crossing, and its use of human anatomy depictions, among other unconventional themes.