t was with great sadness that we learned of the untimely death of one of Zambia’s leading fashion designers, Mary Kaira ,on November 9 2008, just a few weeks after her triumph at Zambia Fashion Week.

Mary, who had a heart condition, succumbed to a heart attack while doing what she loved best, making one of her beautiful wedding dresses.

She studied fashion and design at Evelyn Hone College before launching her career as a jewellery designer.

Indeed she took part in the first two Zambia Fashion Weeks, making jewellery to accompany outfits by Charity Mwakilima and Coretta Arnold.

In 2006 she decided to branch into clothes design in her own right, taking part in a show by Zambia Young Designers, and then taking part in both the 2007 and 2008 Zambia Fashion Week shows as a fashion designer.

Mary loved working with traditinal chitenge fabrics and dreamed of making the material more appealing both to local people and others of all colours and races, something she felt she had achieved.

"My future dreams are to expand further and improve my skills and have a wider clientele and perhaps to open up a boutique, as my office is still currently based at home," she told Beauty Zambia in the run-up to this year’s fashion week..

Sadly it was not to be, but Mary leaves a lasting legacy in the designs she created that serves as an inspiration for all in the industry.