Meet Sibusisiwe Zwane, a young junior architect, model and entrepreneur. A young women who by day designs buildings that will stand 50-years in Maimi and Cape Town. By weekend she stands in front of cameras as a model. In between, she arranges flowers meant to last a week but make someone feel loved forever. When most people picked one lane Sibusisiwe picked three.
At just 25, she’s a junior architect at Africa’s number 1 architecture firm, a Miss South Africa 2023 Top 30 finalist, and the founder of luxury floral brand Belle Blooming Atelier. In a world that tells young women to “niche down,” she’s doing the opposite.
“This is what my life looks like,” she says. “Why should I shrink it?”
From Being Miss KZN Queen To Miss South Africa 2023 Top 30
“I was choosing to believe in myself, even before I fully knew what that looked like.” She still remembers hitting “submit” on her Miss SA 2023 entry video.
“Honestly, I remember feeling a mixture of excitement, nerves and disbelief,” she says. “I battled internally because I kept questioning if I was good enough. But I knew that if I didn’t submit, I would always wonder what could have happened.”
She wasn’t thinking about Top 30. She was just proud she tried. Then it became real. At the time she was Miss KZN Queen. “Making the Top 30 was such a surreal experience. It challenged me to step outside of what was comfortable and believe in myself. It taught me to trust my journey more.”
Modelling wasn’t a childhood plan. It started with art class, DIY makeup, and taking photos of herself and her art pieces. “I loved capturing and being captured on a camera,” she says.
But behind the posts is another story. Rejection. Comparison. Discipline.
“Social media can make you feel like everyone else has everything figured out. Perfect body, perfect skin, perfect life,” she admits. “I have had to remind myself that I’m not meant to look like everyone else. My journey, my body and even the things I once considered imperfections are part of what makes me unique.”
The biggest lesson the industry taught her was: “Sometimes confidence comes after you take the step, not before it.”
Her advice to to the next girl: “Start with understanding who you are before worrying about who you think you need to be. Miss South Africa is not just about being beautiful. It’s about your character, your values, your ability to communicate and the impact you want to have. Do it scared.”
She described her journey in three words: Growth. Resilience. Becoming – “because I don’t feel like I’ve arrived at the final version of myself. I’m still learning.”
From The Flowers She Received To Belle Blooming Atelier
“I decided to stop overthinking it and just begin.” Belle Blooming Atelier started with flowers she received. Specifically, what she did after. “My favourite part of receiving a bouquet was taking care of them, putting them in a vase and decorating my home,” she says. “I wanted to be used as a vessel to send someone else a meaningful and special message of care and that I’m thinking of you.”
She saw a gap in flowers that felt more luxurious, intentional, and like a full experience. “The bouquet is only part of the gift; the entire experience matters.” Her day 1 wasn’t perfect. “I didn’t have everything figured out, but I think entrepreneurship is often about being brave enough to start before you have all the answers.”
The hardest part wasn’t the arranging. It was putting herself out there.
“Starting a business means you have to be willing to say, ‘This is mine, this is what I’ve created, and I believe you should support it.’ That can feel incredibly vulnerable.”
Perfectionism almost stalled her. “I wish I understood earlier that you don’t need to have everything perfect before you begin. You learn by doing. You can start a whole business in your head and think clients will love one product, only to find out they love something else more.” Now she measures success differently. Not just sales, but the thank you messages and returning customers.
Her proudest moment was: “Seeing the brand exist outside of my head. There was a time when Belle Blooming Atelier was just an idea. Now there is an actual registered business, a brand identity, products, customers.”
In 5 years she sees it as a recognized luxury gifting brand across SA, with weddings, events, and a team. “Start scared. Your first version of your business doesn’t have to be your final version. Your dream deserves a chance.”
“Architecture allows me to create through space” By weekday, she’s in the studio. Working on projects ranging from Miami to Cape Town at Africa’s top firm.
“Architecture, to me, is the intersection of creativity and purpose,” she says. “It’s not just about designing something beautiful; it’s about understanding how people live, how they move through spaces.”
She didn’t grow up wanting to be an architect. She grew up drawing. Architecture gave that creativity structure. “An idea can be beautiful, but it also needs to work.”
How she do all three? “My weekdays are focused on architecture. Then there’s Belle Blooming Atelier, which I work on around my other commitments. Modelling tends to fit around everything else.”
The real challenge is energy. “Architecture requires focus and precision, modelling requires confidence and presence, and running a business requires initiative. I’ve learned that balance doesn’t mean giving everything equal attention every single day.”
She was raised by strong, independent women including a grandmother who founded her own school. “My upbringing taught me to be ambitious and to work hard. Little me dreamt of being a singer or an artist. I don’t think she could have imagined this, but I think she would be proud that I never stopped dreaming.”
The Thread That Ties It All Together
On paper, architecture, modelling and flowers don’t connect. To her, they do. “They’re all forms of creativity and storytelling,” she says. “Architecture through space. Modelling through visual expression. Entrepreneurship by turning an idea into something tangible.”
Miss SA gave her permission to stop boxing herself in. “I don’t have to put myself into one box. I can be an architectural professional, a model, a creative and a woman building different parts of her life at the same time.”
She stays grounded by remembering: “None of these titles define my entire identity. I’m an architect, a model and an entrepreneur, but before all of those things, I’m simply myself.”
A message to her 16-year-old self: “Don’t feel pressured to choose just one thing. Stay curious. Explore the things that excite you, even if they seem unrelated. You can build a life that has different chapters, different passions and different versions of you and they can all exist together.”
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