. . . Featuring Zimbabwean Super Model Nyasha Matonhodze
BY DR TONY MICHEL MONDA
Decades of involvement in the fields of art, modelling and fashion design endorsed the writing and understanding of this creative discipline.
The passion, the stress, the deadlines, attention to detail, the glamour and the act of modelling is in fact, no different to a musician, or ballet dancer, rehearsing for the premiere. The maintenance of the size, weights, shapes and carriage, the choreography and rhythm of the catwalk takes years of practice. Models must have poise, intelligence and astuteness to handle the demands of their assignments. The career is normally short-lived and finite.
Despite the gruelling hard work, long hours and strict discipline; the lights and fame, attention from the media, photographers and modelling houses, the money and public exposure, the travel to exotic locations and the continuously growing creativity. Each event is a lifetime experience.
Nyasha Matonhodze is a British born, Zimbabwean model currently recognised internationally as one of the world’s top 50 super-models. In her looks, and style, Nyasha is reminiscent of the first African-American model known professionally as Donyale Luna, who in March 1966, appeared on the cover of the British edition of Vogue, that paved the way for models of colour that followed and continues to influence generations today.
Luna, who real name was Peggy Ann Freeman, was born on August 31, 1945, was an American model and actress who gained popularity in Western Europe and America during the late 1960s.
She is generally cited as the “first Black Super Model”. Naive and hopeful, she left home just months after the Civil Rights Act was passed in America, to chase her modelling dream.
Born and bred in Detroit, Michigan, Luna was the first African-American /Black model to grace the cover of Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar (published in September 1967).
She was considered a trailblazer in the fashion industry at a time when Black models were only shown through” a racial script that
brought together both ‘primitivism’ and modernity as the material precondition for participation within the industry, in an exotic “noble savage” role which required Black models to present only as outsiders from primitive African cultures”; Super model, film star and muse to artists Andy Warhol and Salvador Dali, Donyale Luna, at 1.88m in height, was often described as an ethereal, larger-than-life character that challenged the existing ideals of beauty, broke barriers and influenced culture. However, despite her monumental career accomplishments, as a woman of colour in the 1960s much of her pioneering work has been forgotten since her untimely death in May 17, 1979.
Over the decades Zimbabwe has produced its fair share of international celebrities; from ballet dancers to actresses, voice over artists, authors and musicians, to world renowned sportswomen and of course, super models.
Following in Luna’s wake, Zimbabwe’s own fashion trailblazer, Nyasha Matonhodze has been published in leading fashion tabloids, Harper’s bazaar UK, California Gurls, British vogue, Love, and S Magazine.
She has also appeared in Teen Vogue, Ladybrille, I-D and V Magazines and posed for S/S 11, in Paris, and flighted on the website hotmodelsactress.com.
Nyasha has had modelling contracts with Women Management (New York), Elite Model, Management (worldwide) Model Management (Hamburg) and Munich Models in Munich Germany.
Advertising campaigns include River Island, Topshop and Skincare de la Mer Born on July 31, 1994, Nyasha was discovered at the age of fourteen by Elite Models agency in 2009, and made her runway debut in 2010 for Louis Gray in London. At age 16, she chosen as one of the new fresh faces for Louis Vuitton’s autumn/winter campaign, photographed by eminent fashion photographer Stephen Meisel, that also starred Daphne Groeneveld, Anais Pouliot, Fei Fei Sun, Zuzanna Bijoch, and Gertrud Hegelund.
Just as Donyale Luna, forty-six years earlier, was scouted by fashion photographer David McCabe in 1963, simply wearing her Catholic school uniform, so Matonhodze was discovered in her school uniform at Elite model agency in 2009, and went on to win the prestigious Elite Model Look UK competition later that year, causing ‘a sensational stir’ among blue chip designers and casting directors.
In her debut season the 180 cm tall model walked for brands that included Louis Vuitton, LOEWE, and Emmanuel Ungaro; and walked for Marc Jacobs, Christian Dior, Michael Kros and Balenciaga.
Nyasha Matonhodze modelling career has spanned over 12 years since her big break in 2011. She has walked runways for Philipp Plein, Zac Posen, DKNY, Marilyn, Burberry Prorsum, Carolina Herrera, Ports 1961, Oscar de la Renta, Rodarte, Donna Karan, Prabal Gurung, Altuzarra, Max Mara, Balenciaga, Cushnie et Ochs, Richard Chai, Costume National, Christian Dior, Paul & Joe, John Galliano, Louis Vuitton, Hakaan, Lanvin, Giambattista Valli, Yves Saint Laurent, Givenchy, Giles, Richard Nicoll, Marc by Marc Jacobs, Emilio Pucci.
As recently as May 2022, Rihanna Fenti described Nyasha as “a model with flawless, effortless beauty” and selected Nyasha as the “Face of Fenti Beauty” for her Africa Global launch.
Tony Monda holds a PhD. in Art Theory and Philosophy and a DBA in Post-Colonial Heritage Studies. For Comments E-mail: tonym.MONDA@gmail.com
About Author
