Much like unravelling a woolen jersey, it’s hard to say where creativity begins and ends. For Stephanie Bentum, the textile designer and maker behind some of South Africa’s most revered sustainable fashion collections, the origins of her creative practice can be unravelled by looking at three distinct threads – a pair of felt slippers, a deep respect for nature, and a specific love for classic Greek dance.
Stephanie’s studio is in Somerset West, Cape Town. Since 2009, this has been the home of Stephanie Bentum Textiles, where she makes one-of-a-kind handmade textiles especially felted woollen fabrics for fashion and interiors. She works with natural fibres sourced, cleaned, and processed in South Africa.
“Although always a lover of textiles, it wasn’t until 2006 that locally produced wool grasped my full attention – and that perhaps it was in my DNA,” says Stephanie whose career has spanned theatre, fashion, and interior design.
Stephanie has worked with some of South Africa’s most celebrated sustainable designers – including VIVIERS Studio, MMUSO MAXWELL, Lukhanyo Mdingi, Wanda Lephoto, and UNIFORM by Luke Radloff – to create the fabric foundations of their collections. However, the origins of her niche practice are a far cry from the cities where these designers are based.
Stephanie was born and spent her formative years in what some might call the middle of nowhere, Middelberg. This small town in the Karoo desert landscape became the centre of her creative universe. A love of nature, the land, space, and quiet were markers of her childhood.
Stephanie in one of her Rothko wool throws, knitted and felted by hand and inspired by the art of Mark Rothko
Stephanie’s father worked at Grootfontein College of Agriculture – a training school for people who want to work in the wool and mohair industry in South Africa. The college became her playground. “If I think back to my earliest childhood memories, they must be the many happy field visits with my father and the smell and feel of the sheared wool classing sheds,” says Stephanie. At home, her mother sewed clothing, knitted jerseys, painted fabrics, and did batik.
Stephanie traces her felting fascination back to a pair of treasured woollen felted slippers her mother gifted her as a child. Now, felting is a major part of Stephanie’s practice. “In 2008, not being able to find local natural fibres to work with, I started felting in a small manufacturing studio where we make all our own textiles and products by exclusively using animal fibres, particularly Merino wool.” says Stephanie.
Stephanie Bentum textile created for VIVIERS Studio, crafted from upcycled lace with wool
Felting is one of humankind’s oldest textile technologies. Markers of its origins can be seen in Central Asia, India, and Turkey. It involves a process of layering wool fibres, agitating them with hot water and soap to become matted and entwined, which then becomes a textile fabric. Stephanie also specialises in nuno felting, where wool is placed on a natural textile, such as silk or cotton, and worked into the weave.
Working with this age-old textile tradition underscores Stephanie’s understanding of sustainability as deeply rooted in a respect for heritage practices. “There is a global hunger for knowledge of old skills – some of which we still know, love and respect: these are the almost-forgotten cultures of textile making, colour dyeing, and patterning,” she says. She is committed to learning how we can use old practices as an innovative salve for culture of overproduction and disconnection.
Stephanie’s practice has an experimental spirit. “I think my first training in being ‘experimental’ is improvising for dance exams, in particular, classic Greek dance. You are given a brief and played a piece of music once, maybe twice, to which you have to choreograph a dance that includes different techniques, a story, and explores expression in movement,” she says, “I certainly don’t lack imagination.”
Seeing the fabrics Stephanie creates is to witness art. Up close and personal, you’ll run your fingers over the layered textures and marvel at the detail in each thread. Taking a few steps back, you’ll see that her work tells a story about the land, our precious fibres, and what connects us, in cloth form.
Stephanie cites one of her proudest moments in the last few years as working with MMUSOMAXWELL, former International Woolmark Prize winners and recipients of the Karl Lagerfeld Award for innovation, to create a felted coat made from a merino-mohair blend.
MMUSOMAXWELL’s handmade merino wool felt coat, crop top and wool trousers. All felt made by Stephanie Bentum, with crochet circle rings created by Urbanflock
“I love all the products I have designed and have ever made. They come from a thought, a dream, and often shapes from nature. I don’t look at Instagram or magazines for ideas, as it may influence me or fill my mind with someone else’s ideas. I strive to be original and artistically inventive and not necessarily on-trend,” says Stephanie.
In 2024, Stephanie won the Innovative Design and Materials Award at the Twyg Sustainable Fashion Awards. “This award encourages me to continue growing in technical knowledge and focusing more on an artistic approach to textiles by remaining innovative and relevant,” says Stephanie.
Taking part in the NURU showroom in Cape Town has been her latest venture – a concept space showcasing a dazzling selection of local fashion frontrunners. She is also currently working towards a new online shop and website to show an exclusive range of seasonal textiles under her name, with sizes that can be applied within fashion and interior applications.
Her work with South African designers has been featured in Vogue editorials and on international runways. Yet, her mission is humble: Stephanie wants to create textiles with what we have in abundance in a slow and considered way. Her work teaches that innovation isn’t as much about technological advancement as it is about slow experimentation and creative preservation.
- All images supplied by Stephanie Bentum
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