Since I was a little girl, I've had this passion for fashion and for what makes women look beautiful.

But, as a kid I always embraced fashion, I was always very outspoken about what I wanted to wear, and I’ve always liked films. So it’s just accepting yourself and saying this is who I am, this whom I chose to be.

as a young girl I always enjoyed the feel and look of clothing. Growing up in Soweto, you socialised at weddings and church – those were times when you could shine and put on your best outfit and I enjoyed that. I couldn’t sew to save my life at school, but when playing with dolls with my siblings and cousins, I had the fashion sense, in terms of knowing what looked good on the dolls. And the passion grew from there. So going into the fashion industry was an easy transition for me, because I felt I could make a difference by investing in the growth of industries that define who we are as a nation. The fashion and arts industry is important in that regard, as well as the way it employs thousands of people, such as fabric makers, seamstresses and beaders”.

There are times in life you find yourself falling in love with something else entirely other than what you studied in school. I am a very creative person, not only in arts but also when it comes to making people look beautiful. I love creativity. I fell in love with acting right from when I was a child. I remember when I was growing up, I used to go for beauty pageants and I enjoyed being in the limelight.

I committed to art because it was one of the most prominent things in my surroundings as a child – my mother being an interior designer, my father an architect. Still, I remember my mother's fabrics and my father's drawings in my mind years later.

I have liked fashion since I was small. Only after becoming the creative director of my fashion brand, did I realize that making a piece of apparel is nothing easy. The entire process starts from conceptualization, deciding on the materials, to production and sales and marketing, which are all very interesting to me. Most importantly, I believe fashion coexists with films. I actually have got many of my creative inspirations from films. Good fashion is timeless.

It’s not surprising that I did Industrial Art and Design at school. I was so much more into drawing and painting until I got to University, then I was already ‘Spice Diana’. I had to choose something to do that would help me with the music, and that was fashion. You know when you have art in you, fashion comes naturally. Fashion is now like a full time job – I’m doing it in my music videos, at concerts – everything around me is now art, music and fashion.

When I was a child, I loved to draw. I drew everything, and I drew on everything – I was drawing on the walls, in school textbooks, on my body - everywhere. This is a child’s job! I loved drawing and when I was in school, my art teacher supported me and entered my work in a UN children’s drawing prize which I won twice, when I was 13 and 14. Those prizes gave me the power and the belief to continue drawing – I felt like I had something to say through my drawing. You can explain your story, your feelings, your ideas.

I fell in love with making art because of the images in children’s books.

Fashion is her favourite disciple.

I grew up always wanting to be an artist, and it was in high school when I started to really like writing. I was a junior in high school thinking about what I wanted to do with my life and I thought it would be great if I could find a job in which I could both draw and paint ... and write which was this new thing that I loved. And I thought children's picture books would be the perfect job for me. It was a great combination of those skills and that's when I decided that's what I wanted to do.

I was destined from early childhood. I drew anything and everything. Later when I developed my abilities in high school, I was inspired by storybook illustrations, traditional landscape paintings, surrealism, science fiction art and automotive advertising art. I wanted to use my talents for something along those lines, rather than 'fine art' per se.

Well, fashion is a way to escape and to express your personality and to have fun. I have always liked the idea of fashion and creating personalities with fashion. Let it be over the top or understated or effortless or chic. Or, you know, Erika Jayne with 100 crystals on her face. That’s always been a theme of my life. I’ve always enjoyed costume. I think it's a great part of life, honestly. It's really self-expression.

Fashion is your way of life. It is your statement. It is the way you feel like expressing yourself in all ramifications of life. For me, fashion is not just about dressing or makeup or jewelleries. It is about the way you speak, the way you carry yourself in public and the way you comport yourself among others. I don’t wear heavy makeup nor go crazy about clothes. I try to be as simple as possible. I also love to be very smart in appearance, may be because of my background as a former athlete.