Fashion review: Gutsy Geovante

Throughout Africa, Ghana’s fashion sense is unique. From its exploration of bold colours to dexterous cuts and vivid choice of fabrics, Ghanaian designers stand out amongst many. They aren’t afraid to explore the layers and depths of creativity that others push aside or are too afraid to survey. Their brilliant combination of differently textured fabrics is daring. This gutsy attribute is one that firmly convinces fashion enthusiasts of their artistic brilliance.

One of such fearless Ghanaian fashion houses is Geovante. With its recently released 2025 collection, Gutsy Geovante, the brand demonstrates its unapologetic zeal in creating stylish outfits. Perhaps, the brand’s Creative Director, George Eshun, is trying to make a bold statement with this collection, that this brand isn’t ordinary, but gutsy enough to challenge the norm in the fashion world.

However, that’s not what typically determines a top-notch designer, is it? If it were, everyone who can dare to stitch would be a celeb designer today, wouldn’t they? It takes more than being brave enough to try new things. It takes a combination of other qualities, like the brand’s artistic skills, quality of designs, the relatability of the inspiration behind the design, cultural relevance, innovativeness, and commitment to excellence, among many other qualities.

Let’s get straight into the review and see if Geovante has what it takes to be a force to reckon with in the global fashion scene.  

The first piece we have here is an ankle-length halter neck design. Made with a brown-coloured and breathable silk fabric, the garment glows like sun rays. The top area of this beautiful piece features a bikini cut-out, which reflects that Geovante’s design team is not hesitant in flaunting its artistic skills and bravery in pushing design boundaries.

The dress features an interesting, inverted cone-shaped neck, onto which a rope of the same silk fabric is stitched and knotted like a bow, to make the dress more stylish. This high neck design mirrors the popular South African’ neck ring called Ndebele. This is an ancient African tradition, one of how our ancestors enhanced their beauty. They use the neck ring as a tool to create an illusion of neck elongation. And this is exactly the vibe that this attire is giving, stretching the wearer’s neck and consequently isolating her face, highlighting her beauty and putting the shoulders in the spotlight.

Speaking of shoulders, those are left bare since the design is sleeveless and halter neck. From the front view, a piece of cloth slimes downward to cover each side of the chest from the neck ring to the upper waist of the wearer, forming the torso of this lovely dress. In the middle is an opening, a dexterous, deliberate show of skin that unapologetically flaunts the wearer’s upper body features.

From the waist down to the ankle, the dress maintains a straight cut that accentuates the wearer’s shape. The vertical stitch at the centre of the dress is a feature that allows for the incorporation of a front sleet. This sleet allows for the free movement of the wearer, which is quite thoughtful of Geovante’s design team. Hemmed to the left side of the dress is another piece of long silk fabric that is tied in a bow like a belt. This same creativity is replicated on the lower right side of the dress to further make the dress stylish and appealing.

The back view of this interestingly crafted attire is equally beautiful. Its bare shoulders give the backline a half-trapezium look. The brand finishes up this creation with a disappearing zip. And although George’s design team intends to make the zip less obvious, just as its name implies, they don’t seem to understand that. The zipper’s choice of colour undoubtedly matches the outfit; however, its stitching to the dress was not executed well enough. Look closely at that same area, and one can see that the upper part is not well-aligned. This just shows that there’s more work to be done in terms of attention to detail and clean finishing. 

But besides this, this elegant garment is red-carpet befitting, runway worthy and gorgeous. You don’t need too much adornment as the fabric already shines through. With a pair of heeled shoes, hand handbag and shades, you are good to go.

If “bravery went wrong” were a design, it would probably be this attire. That is our first reaction to this next piece. However, with the nature of this style, it’s hard to believe that Geovante had the appeal of its customers in mind when it decided to craft this design. Or perhaps, it’s the imagination and execution of the design team that is faulty. A holistic look at the garment and only one word comes to mind, shapeless. Harsh but true. 

On the bright side, it is made with a dark blue jean fabric, which means the brand was thoughtful in creating a durable outfit. It should also go without saying that jean is a tick fabric, and for Geovante to be bold enough to explore various cuts and stitches with this fabric, it’s indeed a bold brand.

 The square neckline with a heel at the centre of the front view gives it a creative look. The dress also features short bell sleeves that are meticulously pleated at the shoulder areas and hemmed with an elastic, cupping the wearer’s arms to vividly form the bell pepper shape. Fitted at the top, the designer inserts darts that creatively make space, yet engulf the upper body. The hip area of the dress features a failed attempt at creating an illusion of wide hips in its wearer. The creatively pleated piece of jean fabric is stitched around the waist area to form a V shape on both the front and the back view of the dress.

Besides the invisible zipper, the back view is exactly the same as the front. Perhaps it’s the bagginess of the dress that’s not allowing its beauty to shine through. Because at the lower part of the dress, the flay style does not complement the illusion that the team was trying to create. More importantly, its length is not equal at the base, and although creativity emerges from the weirdest decisions, this piece does not exactly tell well on the brand’s creativity and artistic skills justice.  

But as revealed by this review, the dress has some good sides to it and can therefore be modified by its wearers to look better. For instance, the droopy lower part of the dress can be slim-fitted, and the length can be reduced. That way, the design might look better. Also, maybe if a brighter colour was used instead of this dark blue, however minute, the beauty of the design would pop.

Here we are at the final piece… face-to-face with this two-piece outfit. It features a shirt with an interesting delineation. It’s made with silk fabric, a blend of chocolate brown and golden yellow colours. Unlike the regular shirt, this design proves different, starting from its sharply pointed and elongated collars. The buttons are also hidden under a layer of silk fabric.

The sleeves of the shirt are long and styled in a slightly puffed manner at the shoulder area. This reflects the power that women carry and especially the grace they embody. The sleeves also have a rope, functioning as a pin-down of the wrist in place of the regular button or cufflinks. The rope is neatly tied and adds a touch of style to this brilliantly curated attire.

The shirt is neatly tucked into the mini trapezium-shaped skirt. Looking like the shield of a warrior, Geovante’s creativity shines through once more. Its unique cut reflects dexterity that makes this piece a bit more interesting. Unlike the regular straight-line end, the miniskirt features slanted lines that meet in the middle to form a V shape. At the back, it has a short invisible zipper that helps hold the skirt firmly to its wearer.

There is no doubt that this piece was creatively crafted, intentionally curated and stylishly stitched into life. But not all of it is flawless. The finishes should have been taken more seriously. The same level of attention that is required at the idea conception stage is what is needed throughout the sewing process, such that the design is born free of errors. Because when designers operate on that level, where they deliver on creativity, innovativeness, market awareness and still maintain an impeccable quality of craftsmanship, then they are top-notch design brands.

Geovante has reassured fashion enthusiasts of its ability to create culturally relevant pieces and demonstrated its ethical approach to fashion throughout this collection of designs. 

The brand has proven to be a bold brand that’s ready to break the creative norm in fashion, and its 2025 collection is for the brave, fashion-forward people.

Are you?

By Seun Emmanuel