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Designers celebrate the Karoo landscape with new farm-to-fashion collection

by | Oct 23, 2023

Collaborators and designers Frances van Hasselt and Leandi Mulder have released a new capsule collection called Voorskoot Vygies consisting of 21 one-of-a-kind textile mappings based on timeless, detailed textures tapping into the unique visual nuances of the Karoo.

This FVHxLM Mohair Woven Collection pays homage to Vygies; The ancient, desert plant life that overcomes adversity with diversity. They make up the food bed of the Karoo and bring life and colour to the plains when all else has returned to dust. The concept of a Voorskoot aims to encourage a personal engagement with fabrics. It’s about a “re-connection to the threads we choose to cover ourselves in. Asking us to play with our dress-up and reimagine how we wish to show up and be seen in the world”.

Voorksoot:  Afrikaans for apron. One of the oldest forms of human adornment and widely used as protective layering in everyday practices.

 

Vygies: Karoo-centric members of the world’s largest succulent family. There are 2000 species of Vygie and 95% of them grow only in arid South Africa, mainly in the Karoo.

Fransiena Moos wears a garment from the Voorskoot Vygies collection

The designers say, “There is nothing more symbolic of hope than a Vygie hibernating to stay alive, waiting for the rains to come. And when they do; their generosity of spirit lifts the great Karoo plains, transforming the dust into a tapestry of primary purple, acid orange, never-seen-before greens. Sheets of celebration stretching out in front of you.”

“You cannot capture this so you try abstract it, twist it into small, simple, once-off threads that stem from this place; Mohair grown on goats that compost the ground and enjoy a Vygie for breakfast. Vygies that bloom in brights and fold into rounded, abstract forms that dress the land in fleeting moments of liquid colour.”

Fashion editor and stylist, Jackie Burger, wears a Voorskoot Vygie garment

Each piece is hand-woven by women artisans and made from the finest mohair yarns from South Africa. Each tailor-made, free-form piece reflects the fibre of its origin and the personality of the maker. Its end-function determined by the wearer.

A detail from the Frances van Hasselt studio in Prince Albert, Western Cape

 

Image credits

Photography – Ané Stydom

Creative directors – Frances and Leandi

Director – Marcus Hebbelmann

MUH – Inga Hewett

To enquire about the collection see details here

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