Gerryweir Fashion Company is a new Vancouver based company. Gerald Nyatsanga, designer and part owner of Gerryweir, says this company has been a passion of his for many years, and actually began in Africa. Growing up in a small city in Zimbabwe, the “hip” clothing that was being worn by rap and hip-hop artists in MTV and BET music videos could not be found. The complete lack of urban clothing that Gerald so desperately desired to wear inspired him to take it upon himself to design his own clothing.
His clothing soon became widely recognized in his hometown, and he began to approach shop owners to sell his clothing. Gerald says, “I received a lot of negativity, but I never gave up until I landed a deal with one shop that was aiming at setting trends and providing unique clothing for their clientele.” This exposure was invaluable, and he landed a job as a designer.
In 2001, Gerald and his friend Kingstone, the other half of Gerryweir, moved to Toronto, where they had to start from scratch, with no connections in the Canadian fashion world. With little success in Toronto, Gerald decided to pack it in, pick up, and head West to Vancouver.
After completing a semester of computer science at BCIT, Gerald found his itch to create clothes was not going away, and over the last year Gerald and Kingstone have been steadily promoting their business. Gerryweir wanted to design clothing for a university, and Capilano was a perfect fit.
Gerald describes the main objectives of the clothing they are producing for Cap: “ We want students to be proud to wear the clothes that bare their schools name for two main reasons – first being that they are proud to be at that school and secondly because the garment they wear is very fashionable.” Their Cap clothing includes vibrant coloured t- shirts that read, “I (heart) Capilano U” or the more traditional “Capilano University”, as well as retro cardigans, which I predict will be a fashion trend this Fall.
Fashion, as we all know, comes before comfort, but you will be happy to know that with Gerryweir clothing comfort does not take a back seat. So this year at Cap, don’t blend in with the crowd of generic sweat suit wearers. Instead, set yourself apart by donning an extremely fashionable piece of Capilano Univerisity clothing designed by Gerryweir.
Gerryweir can be bought at the Capilano bookstore, and you can check out their website at gerryweir.com.
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