EMO ADAMS’ LEGACY OF FAMILY STYLE SHINES THROUGH IN NEW LINE OF SUITS

To entertainer Emo Adams, his father and grandfather’s style is the inspiration for a show stopping new brand of suits with designer Brendon van der Vyver.

A national institution in theatre and television, Emo Adams has spent his life in eye-catching suits. Now he and designer friend Brendon van der Vyver who has dressed TV presenters, actors, singers and radio hosts have pooled their rich heritage of entertainment and design into a single brand.

Their DFY Collection and collaboration marry the old and the new; they latch new colours and materials onto the classic elements of suites.

“Style for me is very important. I got to know style with my grandfather, we used to wear arm bands and then my father who had the over-the-top lapels. There was always a sense of respect. People look at you differently when you’re dressed to your worth and so people that don’t understand the language of materials and outfits and design is a lot more than just the showmanship of it,” says Emo.

Brendon’s career draws on The Cape’s famed tailoring and design tradition but it wasn’t easy.

“I came from an area, Mitchells Plain, that as a young boy you don’t want to say that you want to become a designer. That was seen as no. Boys don’t design, it’s only for girls. So it was a very hushed thing for me but I always knew at the back of my mind that it was something that I wanted to do. So I would teach myself to sew behind the scenes,” explains Brendon van der Vyver, Designer and Founder of Be Style.

It is those skills and Emo’s third generation instinct for style that transformed their passion into complete looks.

Material whisperer Brendon and Emo put a lot of consideration into the fabrics used in their designs, in terms of flexibility, comfort and the final look.

This is something that TV personality Dean Smith much appreciates, knowing only too well that there is a difference between a wardrobe suit he wears on location and a hand-crafted masterpiece.