Local Fashion Friday: Suzaan Heyns

I'd like to use Friday's on this blog to focus on South African fashion and design, because we have so much talent here. And today I'm looking at veteran of the SA fashion scene.
Suzaan Heyns was one of the stand out hows at the recent South African Fashion Week because she pushed the boundaries so far out, that nobody could really catch up.
Known for her very architectural fashion-like the gorgeous fish scale dress below which was nominated as one of South Africa's most beautiful objects at this year's Design Indaba- this year she took that to the next level, and used cement in her collection.

The Suzaan Heyns Fish Scale Dress. Photo by Chris Saunders

Yes, cement. She partnered with cement brand, PPC and used it as a material in her show. She has literally sculpted wearable pieces.
She says: "I have always wanted to become a sculptor and approach Fashion like an art, using fabric as my medium. This collaboration has inspired me to work with cement as a new fabric. It has been an incredibly creative process, the result is a unique sculptural  collection ."
Many of the cement pieces are accents-worn with actual fabric pieces, all made in a muted, putty and cement coloured palette.

Suzaan Heyns with her models. You can't really see it clearly, but the neck piece she is wearing is also made of cement, and is made of tiny "dolosse" the South African invention used to protect harbour walls from ocean degradation. All pictures are by Simon Deiner of SDR Photography.