We can no longer deny the fashion industry’s role in the layered social and ecological crises playing out across the world. But, fashion also adds immense value to our lives as a medium for expression, storytelling, and creativity. And so, fashion practitioners are asking: what if another kind of fashion industry is possible?
As an ode to the times we are living in, and the urgency of the climate crisis, the theme of this year’s SA Fashion Week was “Sustainable Way Forward”. Ecological sustainability, women’s empowerment, collaboration across brands, upcycling, low-waste design, and local production investment were some of the markers of this year’s design cohort.
Artho Eksteen
SA Fashion Week has become a coveted annual event ever since Lucilla Booyzen first brought it to life, 25 years ago. With the pandemic turning the world upside down, SA Fashion Week 2022 was a much-anticipated return to the immersive, in-person fashion experience that SA Fashion Week is well known for. Showcasing rich textures, bold colours, and sculptural silhouettes, this year, SA Fashion week was hosted at The Mall of Africa, in Midrand, from 28 to 30 April.
Championing an approach to fashion that treads lightly on the planet while empowering people, 20 designers featured, including iconic names, such as Amanda Laird Cherry, Sipho Mbuto, Mantsho by Palesa Mokubung, and The BAM Collective by Jacques Bam.
Czene.24
Not only is it a space to celebrate established designers at the vanguard of design, but it’s also a space to welcome and encourage new talent in the local fashion industry. SA Fashion Week’s New Talent Search competition is a well-respected yearly talent search that helps to launch the careers of young designers. The top five finalists were Thando Ntuli (MUNKUS), Nichole Smith (Ipikoko), Mikhile du Plessis (MeKay Designs), Calvin Lunga Cebekhulu (Czene.24), and Mimangaliso Ndiko (Sixx6).
MeKay Designs
Fashion designer Thando Ntuli of MUNKUS, showcased their “Sisendleleni” collection, which is about exploring the journey to self, and was announced as the winner of the SA Fashion Week New Talent Search. Inspired by the generations of women in her life, Ntuli’s collection was a visual feast of colour pattern and form.
In an age of mass production, over-consumption, waste, and opaque global fashion supply chains, cultivating local fashion role models and reclaiming local fashion ecosystems is key to a more just and sustainable fashion future. The pioneering designers of SA Fashion Week 2022 are investing in the present and future of the South African fashion industry.
Here is a curated list of our five runway favourites challenging fashion’s status quo:
MUNKUS
MUNKUS, founded in 2019, by Thando Ntuli, is a contemporary, colourful, trans-seasonal brand. It has 80’s and 90’s South African fashion influence with classic silhouettes to create a retro intergenerational style. Ntuli’s inspirations are rooted within intergenerational history. MUNKUS comes alive within the streets of Soweto and Gugulethu.
A key element in identifying the brand is layering, which allows customers to use multiple pieces that can be assembled in different ways. They use a collection of certified organic and ethically sourced fabrics. Core fabrics are cotton, hemp, canvas and linen, highlighted with the use of bull denim and organically printed pieces on these natural fabrics.
All prints are processed through pigment printing which is one of the most responsible technologies available today. There is no steaming or washing required which dramatically lowers power consumption and water usage and reduces the environmental impact substantially.
Ntando XV
Ntando XV brand offers artisanal clothing, with unconventional design. Ntando Ngwenya, established his brand, Ntando XV, intending to target the high-end retail market, garment collectors, and connoisseurs. Ntando, who began designing at an early age, likes to work with experimental cuts, pattern engineering, unusual intricate finishing, treated goods, and controlled fits.
Using both his professional experience and natural talents, Ntando Ngwenya has formulated a new genre in fashion, merging conservative and postmodern techniques to create a new representation of clothing. Using a syncopated technique in pattern engineering, by drafting intricate patterns, he introduces a new take on traditional methods by recreating popular styles in a contemporary light.
Sipho Mbuto
Sipho Mbuto is a fashion designer and creative director of the eponymous label he launched in 2018. The label produces menswear mainline collections positioned as unisex because his brand’s identity is centred around the strength of individuality and not on sex, sexual orientation, societal order, or other normative pressures.
Mbuto’s design aesthetic draws its essence from the playful imaginative tales of craftsmanship that explore freedom of self-expression. Reflecting both the past and the present, and with the influence of architectural structures and abstract arts, his work is characterised by strength and a clever combination of functionality and monochromatic detail.
Believing that aesthetics and sustainability should go hand in hand and that a beautiful garment should not destroy our planet, the brand follows an ethical approach that corresponds with their personal attitude to design, nature and living things.
Amanda Laird Cherry
Amanda Laird Cherry is a designer label that creates apparel with soul. With a focus on telling the stories behind clothing and culture, and a dedication to authentic, responsible production, they appeal to a range of customers. Their style language combines the deep experience of the South African lifestyle and context with classic Asian influences, and they are known for their range of considered basics, separates and statement pieces. By taking familiar styles and silhouettes and updating them with unexpected and avant-garde twists, their garments are both wearable and distinctive.
Sixx6
Creative Director Minga Ndiko is the name behind the fashion label Sixx6. Ndiko’s collection sports adjustable components, interchangeability, and versatile styling to reduce the amount of consumerism. With a National Diploma from Durban University of Technology, Minga dedicates time to researching how certain textiles affect sensitive skin conditions, such as psoriasis and eczema. Sixx6 is an eczema-friendly brand.
- Cover image: Sixx6
- Runway images by Eunice Driver Photography | Official SA Fashion Week Runway Photographer
