The Radisson RED Hotel V&A Waterfront, Cape Town recently hosted the Red Experiment 2.0 challenge where local designers participated.
The #REDExperiment 2.0 is an annual design competition that offers creatives an opportunity to design the hotel's new staff uniform, which includes a T-shirt, a cap and a long-sleeve jacket.
The winning designer in each of the three categories receives a cash prize of R10 000 and their design will go into production. This year's winner are Sinenhlanhla Lombo (Durban) won best cap design, Joshua MacKenzie (Durban) won best T-shirt design, and Chad Jakes Linden (Cape Town) won best jacket design.
Linden's winning jacket was inspired by his daily commute to work in Capricorn Park. “I took creative inspiration from the people I see every day on the train. And what I wanted to particularly focus on was the women I see and create a sense of strong female empowerment in my design.”
The cap design created by textile and fashion designer Sinenhlanhla Lombo took an interesting spin on the hotel’s euro-centric roots, while adding bold South African flair to it.
“I was inspired by the Edwardian era, more specifically the painting of Mona Lisa. I wanted to include her iconic smile in my textile print and compliment this with a wild textured look synonymous with Africa’s natural beauty."
Joshua MacKenzie caught the the judge’s eye with his bold and daring design of the ‘Being Normal is Boring’ T-shirt. “It’s no secret that we’re crazy for eccentric and unconventional style, and we just loved how Mackenzie’s design boldly played with the essence of our brand, yet still remained true to himself and his design aesthetic,” said Leonie Andereya, Curator at RED.
She further stated that the main thing they were looking for in this competition was for the designs to tell a story and connect RED to South Africa, its people, culture and vibrancy.
“Our previous uniforms were inherited from our head office in Europe and had no real connection to our location in South Africa. As passionate patrons of the arts, we also want to be proud supporters of SA designers and provide a global platform for them to be recognised," added Andereya.
The new RED hotel uniform will go into production this month