Of the many competitors of the day, Stadio School of Fashion student Cheyenne du Preez placed third at this innovative sewing competition and in the end brought her costume to light at the official Comic Con Africa 2022 festival which was held at the Johannesburg Expo Centre (Nasrec) from September 22 to September 25.

Comic Con Africa held their first ever Comic Con Africa Sew-a-thon competition in June 2022 at the Stadio School of Fashion where local fashion designers created superhero costume pieces in just eight hours.

Du Preez shared her experience with Randburg Sun:

I initially found out about the sew-a-thon from Stadio. It took me a while to decide what type of costume I was going to make because I couldn’t figure out what a hero meant to me. So, I decided to make a South African-inspired magical girl because I think we need more representation.

It was extremely stressful leading up to the competition and during the competition. My machine broke during the competition. My fabric got stuck in my machine but luckily, I overcame that. I think a lot of people, especially my age, struggle with imposter syndrome because when I found out that I had placed third, I couldn’t believe it. I think I stood there for a good two minutes before walking up to claim my prize.

So, it was stressful, but it was so worth it.

Leading up to the festival I was so excited, I mean it was crazy. I was so glad that I had the opportunity to come here and present my garments to everyone to see. I had some people ask me if they could have a costume and model in it. I was glad because I do want to go into costume design so their requests were things I had been considering.

My time at Comic Con Africa has been lovely. It has been really busy and obviously, load-shedding has been kind of a schlep but it’s been amazing.

I am going to enter the cosplay competitions so I can show off my work myself.

My advice to the youth….Believe in other people that believe in you. Sometimes you need to look at yourself from an outsider’s view rather than just looking at yourself from the inside because they see things that are amazing in you where you think you’re lacking.

Comic-Con Africa holds an innovative sewing competition

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