Behind the Seams

Looking for work as a graduate designer can be incredibly difficult, especially without prior industry experience.

I know this because that was my reality after graduating in 2022.
At first, the journey felt exciting. I was getting interviews, opportunities to present myself, and moments that made me believe something would finally work out; but the jobs and internships never came.

Eventually, I decided to take matters into my own hands and launched my brand, House of Ayi.

I created my first few client gowns before landing actress Nomzamo Mbatha as a client, and that moment changed everything. Suddenly, doors began opening. The demand grew so quickly that I relocated from Cape Town to Gauteng in September 2023 because that’s where the opportunities and clientele were calling me.

For a while, things were going really well. I even had two assistants, one studying jewellery design and another taking sewing classes. It felt like the beginning of something bigger than I had imagined.

Then came the quiet season.

At the same time, I was grieving the end of a seven-year relationship; a relationship that had also been part of my financial support system. As work slowed down, I began actively searching for employment online again, but nothing seemed to move.

Eventually, I packed up my life and returned home to Port Elizabeth. While there, I managed to secure two short freelance contracts, one lasting a month and the other two months; but stability still felt far away.

I grew restless in Port Elizabeth and decided to return to Cape Town.

That period of my life was one of the hardest seasons I’ve experienced. Every morning, I would wake up carrying around 50 printed copies of my CV, 25 for retail jobs and 25 for hospitality jobs, walking through the city and dropping them off wherever I could.
And I did this every single day.
Then in March 2026, something clicked.

I remembered how I had landed an internship at a local jewellery brand back in 2018, not through waiting, but through direct outreach.

So I changed my approach.

I began researching local fashion brands, finding email addresses, and introducing myself directly with my portfolio. I stopped presenting myself as someone waiting for employment and started presenting myself as what I truly was: a service provider, a freelancer, a designer with something valuable to offer.

I had to sell myself from the very first email.

Not only because I knew how to create beautiful garments, but because I understood that my strength was in the way I think, adapt, problem-solve, and grow in unfamiliar spaces. I wanted brands to understand that investing in me meant investing in someone who could evolve with their atelier and contribute something unique.

Today, I work with two brands simultaneously; as a designer at one, and as a visual merchandiser, showroom manager, and in-house tailor at the other.

And the second opportunity came directly from the days I spent walking through the city dropping off my CV.

If there is anything this journey has taught me, it is that job searching is truly a full-time job. It can be exhausting, discouraging, and painfully slow. There were days I felt emotionally defeated, but I kept waking up and continuing anyway.

Every step I took, every corner I turned, every door I entered, and every rejection I received eventually became part of something bigger.

What once felt like endless wandering slowly became momentum.

And eventually, momentum became opportunity.