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Rantatana’s rise in world of design and fashion

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Design is largely intuitive for creative Monte Rantatana who is a master crafter of woven fabrics and fashion designing. As the brains behind Monty Ephphatah Textile (MET), Rantatana prides herself in her second to none ability to curate fashionable attire and clothing.

Narrating her journey to the world of design and fashion, the fashion designer reveals she has always had a hunch about belonging in the fashion industry, citing her adolescent attraction to clothes and art. Rantatana explains it is from this childhood attraction to clothes and fashion where her destiny was forged and cast in stone.

“I have always had an indispensable connection to clothes and fashion and it paved way for my future in the fashion industry,” she tells Monitor Business. Speaking about MET product offerings, the creative genius says they design all kinds of clothing ranging from casual clothing to formal wear.

The company designs pride itself in the delicate sourcing of the finest linen available on foreign markets to make the best clothing designs for their customers. “Our customer base widely consists of pageants contesters in different competitions and staff from institutions such as Botswana Power Corporation and University of Botswana,” Rantatana explains.

The journey of MET designs started in 2016 as a small fish in the pond operating in Mochudi. Operating as a sole proprietor by then, Rantatana says the struggles of operating as a standalone brought the business to a standstill a year later. However, in 2020 she decided to reconnect with her talent and re launched bigger and better.

“We now operate in Extension 2 and we have grown our product offering to include wedding clothes, dinner wear costumes and winter clothes,” she says. Like any other enterprise, MET has its own fair share of problems, the most pressing one being fierce competition from foreigners who operate around her vicinity leading to price wars in the market that ultimately harms her margins. Rantatana’s vision for her enterprise is for it to grow in leaps and bounds to include more product offerings and to expand beyond the shores of Botswana.

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