The faces behind ‘When The Party Is Over’
The Manor’s latest installation this September features the creative pairing of Nao Serati and Tatenda Chidora, longtime collaborators whose work together continues to transcend conceptual fashion and visual storytelling. As a photographer for many Nao Serati collections and editorials, Tatenda Chidora’s work finds a new expression in ‘When The Party Is Over,’ an exploration of the late-millennial awakening: the collision of expectation and reality, and what it takes to grow older in a world far removed from the promises of youth.
Nao Serati
Nao Serati is one of Africa’s most compelling contemporary fashion brands. The name is derived from the brand’s creative director Neo Serati, a Southern Sotho name which translates to the gift of love. Neo, a graduate of LISOF, says South African youth culture: the aesthetics and riotous sensibilities, the vantage points, the ingenuity and acts of creation inform his pieces. The avant-garde fashion brand based in Johannesburg is all about a provocative dialogue which asks and dissects what it is to be in modern-day Africa. In the context of ‘When The Party Is Over’, Nao Serati lends not only clothing and accessories, but a philosophy, embracing both fragility and strength, freedom and the pressures of survival.
Tatenda Chidora
Tatenda Chidora is a Zimbabwean-born, Johannesburg-based creative whose practice is rooted in building worlds through image-making, especially portraiture. As a fine art and fashion photographer whose contemporary style is representative of the global movement hailed as ‘new African photography,’ Chidora is driven by creating a more diverse picture and inspired by the stories and faces of the African metropolis. His work is rich in light and contrast, and working between genres keeps him nimble and versatile: he brings a fine art sensibility to his fashion photography and an editorial edge to his portraiture
