Fashion is more than just threads on your body. At the recent book launch of Africa Fashion, which showcases a cultural renaissance in fashion across the African continent, Jeanine Benjamin, COO of Merchants On Long and Okapi, said:
What we wear is one of the most important ways that we communicate. Whether conscious or unconscious, our fashion choices are an extension of who we are and a reflection of our personhood, our histories, and our journeys.
With Heritage Day on the horizon in South Africa, we reflect on how 6 South African fashion designers pay homage to heritage and celebrate culture through their creations.
Thebe Magugu
For internationally acclaimed South African fashion designer Thebe Magugu, culture is a pillar upon which his namesake brand is founded. Ever since he learnt to sew, the winner of the LVMH Prize 2019 has found innovative ways to marry contemporary design with his own and his homeland’s history, telling stories and making sociocultural statements.
His spring 2022 Genealogy collection, which he dubbed as one of his “favourite collections because it’s personal” is a homage to his hometown, Kimberley. According to an interview in ELLE magazine, a trip to the small Northern Cape city, where he grew up nose-deep in international fashion magazines and surrounded by family members with fierce sartorial sense, was intended as an escape from the hustle and bustle of his busy life. Instead, Thebe was re-inspired not only by the joy that being at home and around family brought him but also by the forms and patterns he remembers his mother, grandmother, and aunt wearing when he was a child. Cue Genealogy. A collection shot against backdrops of Thebe’s old family photos with nods to South African culture like the kombi taxi, a potjie pot, and elaborate doeks.
Not long after Genealogy, Thebe honoured eight cultures in his limited-edition women’s ready-to-wear collection called Heritage Dress, released in May. Each of the long-sleeve bohemian-esque dresses with necktie detail and puff sleeves depicts illustrations of the Zulu, Tswana, Swati, Vhavenda, Pedi, Xhosa, Tsonga, and Sotho tribes by artist Phathu Nembilwi. Cultural elements specific to the respective tribes like Basotho blankets, conch shells, drums, beadwork, and baskets are portrayed in the graphic dresses and are accompanied by an overview of each culture by writer Vuyolwethu Reoagile. As Magugu tells Vogue, “I really wanted it to also be an education of some kind”.
- Learn more about Thebe Magugu here
iFele
“iFele is about us, proud Africans in the urban environment,” says Reggi Xaba, founder of the six-year-old Durban-based contemporary African footwear brand called iFele.
iFele reinterprets the Zulu “imbadada” which are tyre or vinyl sandals made by migrant workers and traditionally worn to ceremonies and events. iFele shoes are made using modern shoe-making methods. They merge thermoplastic rubber soles with leather uppers from Wellington, in the Western Cape. The hand-decorated shoes are inspired by traditional Zulu designs with Xhosa, Swazi, and Ndebele influences.
Reggi’s comment on iFele implementing culture and heritage to produce contemporary footwear from an interview with Twyg two years ago still holds: “The idea of the brand stems from a desire to create a product that represents our beautiful culture honestly and positively to show the rest of the world and ourselves. We explore the idea of an African urban nomad who expresses his culture confidently everywhere he travels.”
- Learn more about iFele here
MAXHOSA AFRICA
Multi-award-winning knitwear designer Laduma Ngxokolo is constantly tapping into his roots to inform the development and outcome of each collection. Laduma’s brand MAXHOSA AFRICA, now over a decade old, began as a premium knitwear label for newly initiated Xhosa men (amakrwala) when it came time to replace their old wardrobes.
Born and raised in Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth) in the Eastern Cape, Laduma often attributes the foundations of his work to his late mother and her deep appreciation for Xhosa culture which, according to Laduma, would often form the basis of their bedtime stories growing up.
The now iconic geometric MAXHOSA designs and colours stem from patterns, silhouettes, and colours of traditional Xhosa attire, particularly beadwork, and are reinterpreted into his contemporary knitwear collections.
In an interview with Bizcommunity about the idea of celebrating culture and heritage through his creations Laduma said, “When I visit African countries, I’ve picked up that people don’t celebrate their heritage, because they’ve been told it’s not enough. It’s one of my jobs to make sure we regain that. Culture is not meant to separate us, it’s supposed to unite us as people.”
- Learn more about MAXHOSA AFRICA here
Katekani Moreku
Another designer who pegs his mother as playing an inspirational role in his craft is the winner of the inaugural Twyg Sustainable Fashion Student Award in 2019, Katekani Moreku.
In an interview for Twyg, the slow fashion designer mentions that his mother, Evah Moreku, has been the core influence on his perception of life. “She has been a symbol of strength, endurance, and a true reflection of a real-life superhero in my life. She is most definitely the inspiration behind my craft. For as long as I can remember I’ve always seen her sitting on the living room sofa showing off her crochet skills,” said Katekani.
Katekani grew up in Bushbuckridge in the SePulana culture in the Manyeleti district. The traditional wear of the SePulana culture combines plastic material and leftover fabric with bright, bold colours which explain Katekani’s innate commitment to re-using material to create innovative upcycled garments.
Two years ago Katekani was scouted by Gavin Rajah for Pick ‘n Pay Clothing as part of the Futurewear initiative to create a collection to celebrate South Africa’s rich cultural heritage. Katekani drew much inspiration from his roots in SePulana culture and fused them with elements of other local cultures he was exposed to as a child to create a limited-edition range of seven ready-to-wear items including graphic t-shirts, shirts, swim- and denim shorts.
- Learn more about Katekani Moreku here
TSHEPO Jeans
We remember Tshepo Mohlala of leading South African denim brand, TSHEPO Jeans, for his We The People commercial collection, and more recently, Last Stories of Culture – a limited-edition capsule collection in collaboration with Castle Milk Stout.
The winner of the 2020 Twyg Sustainable Fashion Awards Trans-seasonal Category, conceptualised and created the Last Stories of Culture collection to bring “purpose back into fashion through the preservation of culture”.
The Ekurhuleni-born designer drew inspiration from two prominent cultural icons in South Africa to produce the collection: Indigenous musician Gogo Madosini, who teaches youth how to play the traditional amaXhosa Umrhube and Uhadi instruments, and Ouma Katrina Esau, the last living N/uu speaker.
These cultural elements were reinterpreted into classic, dark denim jackets, jeans, dungarees, and graphic t-shirts with the wording, “POC – Person Of Culture” bringing new meaning to wearing our cultures proudly by not only wearing it on on our sleeves but wrapping our whole bodies in story maps of heritage. Last Stories of Culture will remain a deeply meaningful, symbolically-charged collection: As you would pass clothes from generation to generation, you pass a wealth of knowledge and rich traditions for future generations to inherit.
- Learn more about TSHEPO Jeans here
The Herd
The work of multi-award-winning brand, The Herd, founded and directed by Johannesburg-born and based Mbali Mthethwa, truly is a creatively contemporary embodiment of cultural preservation, celebration, and education.
The winner of last year’s Twyg Sustainable Changemaker and Nicholas Coutts Awards comprises a collaboration of craftswomen based in rural South Africa. Their work, which ranges from decorative wall hangings to necklaces, is made using 100% glass Miyuki or Czech beads and traditional Nguni free-hand beading techniques like the Ndebele bead stitch also referred to as ‘Herringbone stitch’.
Beadwork is pregnant with meaning in indigenous knowledge systems. Traditionally, certain colours and patterns and the combinations thereof communicate marriage statuses, titles or roles within the community, and feelings like trust, love, and harmony.
The Herd’s latest work, Ode To Iziqhaza (Zulu Earplugs), is a cultural education inspired by Iziqhaz. From deep blues and oranges to lilacs and lime greens beaded into exquisite geometric patterns, the work tells the story of a more than a 120-year-old rite of passage in the Zulu culture – the ear-piercing ceremony known as ukuqhumbuza. The process involves gradually increasing the dimension of an ear incision with increasing sizes of bamboo or training plugs.
Adorning their ears with iziqhaza (Zulu earplugs), the “ukuqhumbuza ceremony marked the first step towards the path to adulthood, and by piercing the ears, it was believed that the child’s ears had now been opened and that he or she would be able to hear well and therefore be able to understand things better. With this came greater responsibilities and more onerous duties,” The Herd writes in an Instagram post.
- Learn more about The Herd here
Perhaps what stands out is that most of the designers mentioned are deeply influenced and motivated by their family units in some form again underpinning how our origins influence and shape us.
Bonnie Greer, who has written the prologue for the new published book, Africa Fashion, where she meditates on African fashion noting that, “It is agency at its highest. Because it creates a future in which African people are not defined by anyone except ourselves. This moment we are in is one where, globally, connotations to African fashion have shifted to a point where African designers are finally being recognised by winning top international fashion prizes”.
- Cover image: Photo by Aart Verrips of Thebe Magugu’s ‘Heritage Dress’ collection
- Image of The Herd’s necklaces: Photo by Tiisetso Moreki
- Other images sourced from the designers’ websites
