Gavin Rajah, the iconic fashion designer who is all about couture, refined craftsmanship and sophisticated glamour, chatted to the neofundi team.

Your favourite decade of fashion: 2000’s

The most timeless designer in your opinion: Hubert Givenchy

The most creative designer: The late Alexander McQueen.

The collection you will never forget: my first collection during the couture collections in Paris in 2006.

The style you most dislike: Contrived style that is not effortless.

Your favourite fashion photographer: It would have to be two! Richard Avedon and Cecil Beaton.

The fashion faux pas you can tolerate most: Badly made fashion!

The fashion faux pas you can tolerate least: Clothing in bad fabrics and that are ill fitting!

Your favourite fashion accessory: A scarf

Favourite colour: Mostly black and then some fuschia for good measure.

Favourite fabric: Anything silk

Favourite model: Always will be and is Gretha Scholtz.

Best in Cape Town for:
Sundowners: Anywhere on the Atlantic seaboard!
Lunch: Haiku
Dinner: Bukhara
Dessert: Café Milano
Sushi: Willoughby’s

Your favourite meal that you would cook for loved ones: Roast lamb marinated in onion yoghurt, pierced with garlic, rosemary and slow roasted with lemon halves.

Describe yourself in 3 words: Passionate, Outspoken and Discerning.

The kind of people you dislike: People who try very hard to impress or be something they are not.

Favourite holiday destination and why: The Six Senses Hideaway in Koh Samui – it was so tranquil, and picture perfect. It calmed and cleared my mind and enabled me to come back rejuvenated and ready for work!

What does a typical day look like for you: Start my day at work at 5.45am. Go through all my emails and then prep work for my fashion studio. Brief my staff who start at 7.45am and then go through the previous days work, client orders and and pending deliveries. Break at 10am then start working on stuff related to my event business and attend meetings if I have any. There is no set lunch break although I generally break for 30 mins for lunch at about midday. I continue till about 3pm in my office and then go home and work from my office there till about 6pm. Depending on the amount of work that needs to be done in my studio I could stay there until late (quite often have slept there!). I normally have dinner very early and then get back to work which often then ends up in me getting into bed at the earliest at about midnight. My days are far from glamorous!

Your own definition of happiness: Visiting my mum for a cup of tea, playing with my puppy, spending time with loved ones, helping people less fortunate then I am and creating beautiful things...

Your present state of mind: I have to get this interview done so I can pack for my flight tomorrow. I HATE packing for international travel….I overpack from stressing about what to pack!

View Gavin's profile on neofundi

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