Fashion designer

Suzaan Heyns once appeared as a backup dancer and lip-sync singer in a Tamara Dey music-video and it’s easy to see why. The savvy red-lipped blonde radiates style and is one of South Africa’s most talented young designers. Known for her avant- garde designs, 30-year-old Heyns is not afraid to take risks and showcased garments sculpted in cement at a recent SA Fashion Week.

Heyns won an Elle bursary to study at the Lisof fashion design school and, while a student, started doing freelance fashion illustration, show production and styling to help her to build a label and self-fund her own company, which now boasts a flagship store in Melville and retail outlets throughout the country. In 2012, her fish-scale dress was nominated at the Design Indaba as one of 10 “most beautiful objects in South Africa”. It’s easy to see why Glamour magazine awarded this proudly South African Style Star Woman of the Year 2011.

— Zeenat Mahomed

Twitter: @suzaanheyns