After graduating from Cape Peninsula University of Technology in 2015, U.Be.You founder and designer Ulfah Davids worked for a local streetwear brand. Known as the first lady of TWOBOP, she became...
Fashion
Q&A: Alexa Schempers uses waste as resource for her fashion brand Rethread
Alexa Schempers launched her sustainable fashion brand, Rethread, while she was studying in The Netherlands. The brand focusses on selling three categories of clothing: redesigned (upcycled),...
Book extract: Why the act of caring for our clothes extends to the act of caring for our environment
Ahead of Fashion Revolution Week 2021 we are publishing an extract from Orsola de Castro's book Loved Clothes Last. Orsola, who together with Carry Somers, launched Fashion Revolution in 2013, a...
Q&A: BOYDE’s creative director gives us the lowdown on his award-winning work
Three years after he launched his menswear brand, Joburg-based designer Samkelo “Boyde” Xaba won South African Fashion Week’s Scouting Menswear Competition. His 2020 winning collection, in...
Freshly Cut
In this shoot, we celebrate a few South African brands that are engaging with sustainability as a design ethos and as a business model, shooting some of our favourite looks on a small-scale farm...
Q&A: Luke Radloff of UNI FORM considers the future in his design decisions
Creative director Luke Radloff had been honing his skills for several years before founding the South African fashion label UNÍ FORM two years ago. As creative director of his brand, he combines the...
Guided by skilled cobblers Matsidiso ethically crafts modern accessories
It’s often said that you cannot teach an old dog new tricks, but accessory brand Matsidiso was born from breaking this rule. Co-founder Jinae Heyns knew that her mother-in-law’s shoe factory had...
The ancestral is modern in Thebe Magugu’s Banyoloyi A Bosigo
A tale about a transcendental, all-female realm populated by complex heroines, the fashion film Banyoloyi a Bosigo follows the clash of female gangs in a sun-scorched landscape and the violent...
Q&A: Daniel Sher presents the new Good Good Good Collection
Cape Town fashion brand Good Good Good launched its SS21 collection with the film An Orchestra in an Open Field directed by Jarred Figgins. Through its partnership with the Cape Town Philharmonic...
Q&A: Eleazer Radebe of By Ele presents a new collection to soothe our souls
Designer Eleazer Radebe started his working life as a researcher in HIV / AIDS. It was another 10 years before he launched into fashion in 2012. While he wants to focus on natural fibres,...
Zambian designer Betty Chilonde makes clothes in harmony with nature
For a fashion project that I did in collaboration with Zambian designer Betty Chilonde, she designed three looks that exhibit how she responds to her dream of living in harmony with nature and to...
Q&A: Sabine Matsheka says the natural elements are the soul of MARU
Sabine Matsheka makes clothes that make sense for a desert climate. She writes on her website that MARU is “inspired by life beneath the clouds, in the sun-baked Kalahari Desert, quenched by the...
Q&A: iFele founder Reggie Xaba has given a traditional sandal a new look
Using shoes as his medium of expression, Reggie Xaba has interpreted a traditional shoe, applying modern materials to make a contemporary item. Born in Durban, he grew up in Umlazi township and...
Sindiso Khumalo uses fashion to tell stories of women’s empowerment and global sheroes
Sindiso Khumalo is not just a LVMH finalist. An unofficial family historian, textile designer and social activist, she represents the social possibilities which can be opened up through fashion. And...
Q&A: Ocean Sono says vintage is growing underground roots
A few weeks ago, I spotted a vintage shoot on Instagram. One of the models, Yui Keeping, sent me to meet Lulu Sono at her vintage stall on Church Street in Cape Town, which led me to meeting Lulu's...