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Brenda Phiri Entertainment Reporter
Former Miss Tourism Zimbabwe Malaika Mushandu has joined the bandwagon of local celebrities venturing into business with the 22-year-old beauty now co-owning a clothing store in Harare’s CBD. Together with her best friend, Sheena Linda (22), the duo recently opened the store that specialises in women’s wear, “Hidden Closet”.

“We opened the store last month in Chisipite but we moved it here recently. It caters for people aged between 18 to may be 30 because the stuff that we sell is that you would find in our wardrobes.

“This is also a way of catering for the Facebook fans who are constantly asking about where we get our clothes,” said Mushandu.

The enterprising duo that was once into tree seedlings before said their decision to explore the clothing retail was brought about the need to provide variety to the fashion business.

“The problem we have in this country is that people always want to make that 100 percent profit margin and that leads to ridiculous pricing. We brought together our business background since we are studying business we studied the market.

“We are not greedy and sell good quality clothes at reasonable prices,” she said. Speak on their stock, Mushandu said the bulk of it was bought from China while the rest was sourced from their constant travels around the world.

“I travel to different countries for various modelling gigs and that is when I buy some of the clothes that we sell here. We have stuff from Australia, the United Kingdom, Dubai and United States but we are excited about the upcoming stock from Turkey.

“The quality of clothing from there is really good,” she said. On the question of fake brands versus originals, the model said while there were good imitations on the market, local stores were “stealing” from customers under the guise of selling original brands like Gucci, Foshini, Manolo Blahnik, and Louis Vuitton. These normally cost thousands of United States dollars

“Some of our shoes are Calvin Klein Vivian inspired. This is not to say they are the actual brands. We are not sure how some retailers negotiate for lower prices because they go for as much as US$5 000.

“At some point I bought a second-hand pair for US$800 I got them for US800. I am not sure about local stores that have original products for much less,” he said.

The model promised tips and fashion advice to the customers who catch her in the store.