Cape Town Designer Wins 2024 SA Fashion Week Talent Search

Cape Town designer Jessica-Ann Shepherd, the founder of the clothing brand Oddity, recently won the 2024 Mr Price New Talent Search, hosted by Mr Price and South Africa Fashion Week.

Not only did she walk away with a cash prize of R50,000, she has an exclusive opportunity to craft a collection for select Mr Price stores that will be on sale early 2025. Not bad for a clothing line started only five years ago.

Angelo C Louw Caught Up With Jessica-Ann for a Q&A Session

What was it like winning the competition?
Winning the competition was a bit of a shock but extremely exciting. An opportunity like this is so huge for us local designers and I am so grateful for this experience as well as the journey with the other amazingly talented designers.

Did you think you would win?
Honestly I was super confident in my range and I had the best support system that was cheering me on but my fellow designers created such amazing collections I knew it was a tough competition. And it was definitely anyone’s win from all the ranges we saw

What was it like preparing for Fashion Week?
Preparing for fashion week was really fun, it took me back to my college days when we prepared for our college shows. A lot of work went into the prep with styling and putting everything together.

It was a really unforgettable experience and went smoother than expected.

What inspired your collection?
My collection was inspired by two macro trends called dare to dream and utility pastels. I chose these trends after hours of research because they resonated with my brand the most and my personal aesthetic. These trends influenced the silhouettes and colour pallete by adding that soft pastels and contrast brights to the utility elements and textured fabrics.

As a graphic designer as well, the prints were drawn from the dare to dream trend by adding that bit of whimsical elements and being just a little odd.

My knits are inspired from the range I currently have which a lot of the credit goes to my mother as she turns my vision into what it is now with all our knitted items.

Jessica-Ann Shepherd (Front Center) – Image: Eunice Driver

What inspired you to become a designer?
I wanted to be a designer my whole life and everyone can attest to that. I’ve been making dresses out of leaves in my childhood.

A lot of that interest came from my grandmother and her craft class – a group of her sewing friends. They put the cutest things together every Wednesday and she used to do all of our costume/dress sewing and gave us the little bits of fabrics left to make things for our dolls.

How does your city or community come through in your designs?
Cape Town is full of creatives and bold people. I think you can definitely see that boldness and colour coming through my designs as well as also being very street styled influenced.

Models showing of Jessica-Ann Shepherd’s Winning Designs from her Oddity Label – Images: Eunice Driver

Who is your South African fashion icon (and why)?
At the moment my fashion icon is definitely Yasmine Furmie, her style and the way she mixes prints and textures is everything! The thing I obviously love most about her that she always has her sneakers.

Tell us about the prize?
There is cash prize of R50,000 that will assist my brands journey and mentorship program at Mr Price Head Office and have the exclusive opportunity to craft a collection for select Mr Price stores that will be on sale early 2025.

What excites you most about winning?
I am most excited about what I get to create at next and working with a brand I’ve been shopping with my whole life is so unreal.

What are your hopes for the future?
My hopes for the future is definitely getting some oddity stock into local stores and building my brand’s community. I have the most amazing customers that embrace their individuality and creativity, I want to create more for them.

What advice do you have for people pursuing a career in fashion?
My advice for people pursuing fashion is definitely don’t give up, it does become stressful and overwhelming but keep at it and work towards the bigger goal. Another thing I’d say is do as much internships in different fashion fields, that definitely helped me with finding where I fit into this big industry.

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