Gavin Rajah

Gavin Rajah is a South African creative director, entrepreneur, and cultural strategist whose work bridges fashion, social impact, and performance. A UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and member of a Harvard advisory board, he is a self-taught designer who led the first South African brand invited to Paris Fashion Week (Couture) in 2006. He has shown collections in Paris, New York, Germany, India, and the United Kingdom, and was named by Vogue Italia among "100 brands to watch" in 2013. He created South Africa's first black-owned fashion weeks, later acquired by the Motsepe Family Foundation, and has championed emerging designers including David Tlale and Thula Sindi, taking their work to international stages. With Nelson Mandela, and collaborators such as Naomi Campbell, he helped launch fundraising events for the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund in the United Kingdom and the United States. He also founded POSI+VE, a platform combining art, music, and fashion to equip clinics serving children affected by AIDS, working alongside Seal, John Legend, Diana Ross, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Recognised by Financial Mail among 100 Leaders for social impact, he holds numerous awards for design, and his work has been profiled by CNN, the Financial Times, Vogue, The New York Times, Al Jazeera, and the BBC. For Die Fledermaus, Gavin brings a futurist eye to costume and cultural storytelling, attentive to how elegance, satire, and carnival spirit converse with contemporary Africa and the global stage. He is committed to training the next generation, building bridges between craft, technology, and communities. He continues to advise Harvard and mentor African designers under the Futurewear programme in association with Pick n Pay Clothing.