The first of its kind, the Africa Textile Talks is a three-day Southern African hybrid event. It brings together and celebrates farmers, textile makers, dyers, weavers crafters and fashion designers.
The Herding Academy highlights the importance of herders in regenerative farming
The Herding Academy, based in Graaff-Reinet in the Eastern Cape, teaches people to use livestock as a regenerative tool starting with eco-literacy, much of which is inculcated in indigenous farming practices. “Herders are going to become the most important people in...
Get Hooked
Bev Nates has created a magical fashion editorial that is a tribute to her Russian grandmother, Lilly Levin, whom she adored. Bev remembers her granny sitting alongside a Russian teapot with countless clashing and brightly coloured yarns and a crochet hook in her...
Clothes to Good uses textile waste to change lives
To date Clothes to Good has recycled 580 tons of pre-loved clothes, empowered 108 micro-businesses and supported 100 early childhood centres. But this number increases rapidly as Twyg experienced at the social enterprise’s headquarters in Centurion, in Gauteng....
Tinyiko Makwakwa’s making practice is an act of care for her ancestors and Earth
Tinyiko Makwakwa is a maker. The 37 year-old, who grew up in Tzaneen, Limpopo, rejects other labels. She likes the freedom of not being defined. Language is too limiting, she says. She is not a designer. Nor a textile artist. She likes to be left to make…. and with...
How to adopt a more climate-friendly and sustainable lifestyle in 2022
It’s a new year, a new opportunity to be better versions of ourselves. You’ve probably reflected on last year, and made a few resolutions for this year. But, have you included ones that will commit you to reducing your carbon footprint, plastic packaging, fast...
Tryn serves fish delivered directly from local artisanal fishers to the restaurant
Ahead of last year’s Plastic Free Mzansi campaign, I met with founder of The Beach Co-op Aaniyah Omardien at Tryn, a fine dining restaurant in Cape Town. Named after Steenberg’s 17th century founder, Catharina Ras, or Tryn; this restaurant is an apt venue for sharing...
Open Call for Design Futures Lab 2022
Have you got a sustainable fashion story you want told in an immersive digital format? Electric South, Twyg and Crossover Labs are excited to invite creative technologists and digital storytellers to apply for the Design Futures Lab 2022.
Green Water, Blue Forest
The name of IAMISIGO’s SS22 collection is so simple that at a glance you might miss its super power: “Green Water, Blue Forest”. Water is generally blue, forests are green. By swapping these colours around, the brand startles us. It reminds the reader how much human...
Q&A Vintage with Love founder, Jacquie Myburgh Chemaly on literacy and secondhand shopping
Leigh Ord and Jacquie Myburgh Chemaly founded Vintage with Love in 2013 to contribute to solving the literacy crisis in South Africa. Soon afterwards, Debbie Smuts joined the team in Cape Town. With the founders mutual love for fashion, they decided on hosting an...