By Nkhensani Mthombeni
• Dontry Baloyi now designs traditional wear, matric dance outfits and cosmetics while teaching sewing skills to help unemployed people earn an income.
• The Phalaborwa entrepreneur started with his grandmother’s sewing machine and now dreams of expanding his sewing school to train more students.
When Dontry Baloyi lost his mother at the age of 12, life became a struggle.
Raised by his grandmother, who worked as a domestic worker, he learned that hard work was the only way to build a better future.
Today, the Phalaborwa entrepreneur has turned that lesson into a successful fashion and beauty business.
Baloyi owns Dontrissib, a brand that designs and makes a wide range of clothing.
His business creates traditional outfits for men and women, elegant matric dance dresses, evening wear, custom swimwear and winter jackets.
But making clothes is only part of his dream.
He also opened a sewing school to teach others the skills that changed his own life.
The school has two intakes every year in July and December.
Students spend six months learning pattern drafting, pattern grading and how to make skirts, blouses, trousers and shirts for both men and women.
Baloyi said he wants his students to leave with skills that will help them earn a living.
“I started the school because I wanted other people to have the same opportunity I had to change their lives through sewing,” he said.
His biggest challenge is space.
His workshop can take fewer than 10 students at a time, making it difficult to help everyone who wants to enrol.
He hopes to secure funding so he can move into bigger premises and train more people.
To make learning easier, he also offers evening classes for people who work during the day.
Baloyi’s love for fashion started at home.
As a teenager, he used his grandmother’s sewing machine to make clothes for himself.
People soon noticed his unique designs and started asking him to make clothes for them too.
At the age of 16, he enrolled at Rixile Education Centre in Lulekani Township, where he learned sewing and pattern making.
Those skills helped him turn his passion into a business.
But Baloyi did not stop there.
He taught himself how to make beauty products and added cosmetics to his growing business.
Today, he sells perfumes, facial oils, hand creams, body creams and other beauty products under the Dontrissib brand.
He said the rising cost of living inspired him to expand into cosmetics so he could strengthen his business and support his sewing school.
Baloyi also gives unemployed people a chance to make money by becoming resellers of his products.
They buy his clothing and cosmetics and sell them for a profit.
To reach more customers, he has launched the Dontrissib Beauty in Fashion shopping app, where people can order both clothing and beauty products.
Looking back, Baloyi says the hardships he faced as a child taught him never to give up.
Instead, he learned to use his hands, keep learning and create opportunities for himself and others.
Now he hopes his business will continue creating jobs and helping more young people build better futures through fashion and entrepreneurship.
Pictured above: Dontry Baloyi turned his grandmother’s sewing machine into a fashion, cosmetics and sewing business that is helping others build a future.
Image source: Supplied.
