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About
Gert-Johan Coetzee, born 18 November 1987, is a South African fashion designer. His fashion atelier is based in Linden Johannesburg, in Gauteng province. He specializes in couture red carpet gowns, he also designs a ready-to-wear range. Coetzee is known for dressing South African and international celebrities at red-carpet events.
His love for fashion started at a young age, told his mother that one day he would become a famous fashion designer. He attended Koster primary school until Grade Four and then was home-schooled. As a young boy in school, he used to dress his pencils up in tissue paper, and by the age of sixteen, he started studying at the North West School of Design. He graduated from NWSD in 2005.
At 19, Coetzee was named South Africa's Most Promising Designer at the Cape Town Fashion festival. His first commercial venture was as a partner in the Diamond Face Couture label with businesswoman Uyanda Mbuli which launched in 2006. He went on his own in 2010 and launched Gert-Johan Coetzee Pty Ltd at the age of 22. He has since shown his collections at South Africa Fashion Week and showcased his work at international Fashion Week shows in Canada at Vancouver Fashion Week, Angola, and Nigeria. His couture designs are worn at all major fashion events, including the Durban July Handicap, J&B Met, SA Music Awards, Huisgenoot Skouspel, You Spectacular, and Miss World. His gowns have been worn by presenters of popular TV shows such as Strictly Come Dancing and Top Billing.
Coetzee believes in "fashion with a conscience" and is known for using his platform and voice as a celebrity designer in the media to bring attention to social issues, mainly concentrating on women. Coetzee first launched this concept in September 2012 when he met Thando Hopa, a prosecutor with the National Prosecuting Authority, who has albinism and whom he convinced to become the face of his new collection. Hopa had never modeled before, but her appearance on the catwalk at SA Fashion Week in GJC caused a stir in the fashion industry.
