Anesu “Minister of Whitelinen” Mhembere
Entrepreneur and Fashion Blogger
“The journey to finding my purpose in life and be able to fully serve it to the work has not been a walk in the path but persistence made finally brought me here, my destiny.”
“In my family, a story is often told, of a boy who never removed his father’s tie from the age of 7 and that was me. I would wear one anywhere with anything even on a T’shirt going to church, which really got my siblings annoyed. What was funny is, the tie would look like a baby feeder considering the width of the tie against such a body. In the same story appears my Uncle Robert, the only Uncle who would visit us after work always, wearing a tie. I would even run around singing ‘Uncle Robert came wearing a tie’. It so much fascinated me that we could say he became my role model, my goal, my dream, to put on a tie. I am sure he influenced my sense of style”.
“Anesu Mhembere is my name and I am not sure if my mother knew l would be called by a different name later on in life but I am sure she is happy about it”.Minister of Whitelinen is the brand name Anesu selected to be what defines his services. He calls himself a Fashion Practitioner, “I do anything and everything fashion”.
The love for the perfect tie could be what also got Anesu the ‘The Head boy’ title in Primary school and such a tie Head boy but with a perfect tie and recognisable smartness. It should be the same reason that got him more points when he went to represent the school in public speaking and speech competitions.
Anesu is a creative soul, he doesn’t feel comfortable with mediocrity and one Sunday in church as he was looking at the worship on stage, Anesu felt a lot was amiss. The stage management was lacking and most importantly the outfits. He decided to join the team not because he wanted to be a vocalist “I am actually a terrible one” his idea was once he became part of them, it would be easier to give suggestions. Few months in Anesu became one of the main backing vocalists, not because they used any auto-tune to his terrible vocals, but perhaps he always made sure his outfits represented the team well on stage. He learnt something, your exterior can get you through any door!
Anesu forgot why he had joined the team but it was for this reason that he learnt of a term that they used to call our outfit coordinators, “Ministers of Whitelinen”. It was a biblical term from the book of Chronilces, where there were people responsible for making sure the praise and worship team was nicely dressed in perfect White – linen. Anesu also eventually became part of the department.
A few years later after he left the church and personalized the term, Anesu felt it so much resonating with his passion it had the perfect definition of who Anesu wanted to be.
He took it as just an Instagram handle at first until he realised his style was inspiring friends, social media audience, strangers in the streets who would stop you and compliment and even his family. After this realisation Anesu then decide to handle Minister of Whitelinen as a brand.
This is what he then did to make the brand effective
1. He started with creating content , doing fashion inspirational photoshoots
2. Started a youtube channel commenting and reviewing outfits from red carpet events
3. He started associating himself with other fashionistas in the industry to seek relevance.
4. He started fashion movements and events namely FRIDAY FASHION FETE event – a platform where he partnered with different fashion gurus and dispense fashion and style information to the audience, DANDY GENTLEMEN – “A movement that come in a flashmob type of an event where we gather well dressed gentlemen and parade ourselves in public places taking videos and pictures such that we create a fashion consciousness within our black men community” , VOGUE LADIES – which is a parallel movement to Dandy Gentlemen but for the ladies and recently FASHION TALK AFRICA – a talk show soon the be produced.
All this gives Anesu a sense of fulfillment. Although by profession he is Chinese Interpreter, Anesu managed to establish his Image Consultancy business under which everything about Minister of Whitelinen falls under. He now takes anything to do with a person’s image his responsibility and he has taken it upon himself to make sure he helps people discover the best version of themselves in terms of their outlook, dressing wise and their grooming.
Presently he is working with wedding teams, artists, actors, executives and fashion lovers to create the best images the company can offer.