Fashion festival in Uganda looks to the earth for answers
Kwetu Kwanza highlights a new wave of designers turning waste, bark, banana fibre, and forgotten textiles into fashion
Tag: Slow Fashion
13 South African sustainable swimwear brands
Your guide to swimwear made with care
Africa Textile Talks Day 3: Thread with Care
Titled Thread with Care, the final day of the Africa Textile Talks 2025, took a deep dive into the culture of cloth, innovation, indigenous knowledge, industrialisation and decentralisation. Speakers from Namibia, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Nigeria, South Africa and Mozambique shared stories about...
Explainer: Why clearing out your closet is a sustainable power move
Feeling overwhelmed by your wardrobe? A conscious declutter might be just what you need. When you let go of what’s not serving you, you make space for what actually works. You get to know your style better, buy with more...
Q&A: How Up-Fuse repurposes waste from Cairo’s Garbage City
Up-Fuse is a social enterprise founded in 2015 by Yara Yassin, Rania Rafie and Lama El Khawanky. The organisation operates from Cairo’s Garbage City, an informal settlement on the Egyptian capital’s outskirts, which has no effective official garbage system. The...
Your go-to guide to thrift stores in South Africa
Thrifting can be a wonderful way of shopping sustainably and affordably while finding one-of-a-kind gems. However, as the popularity of thrifting rises, so too do the prices of these once-cheap clothes, as well as unsustainable market practices. Because of the...
Q&A: Kenyan designer Jamie Kimani uses fashion to foster pride and self-expression
Jamie Kimani is the founder and creative director of Sevaria, a Nairobi-based brand that includes upcycled and deadstock materials to produce genderfluid pieces. His collections feature made-to-order or limited edition garments, finding inspiration from African cultures and religions. “We’re keen...
How a design duo created their made-in-Nigeria fashion brand This is US
A husband-and-wife design duo were inspired by a chair. A simple, curved wooden design with red upholstery fabric that survived decades in Osione Itegboje’s family home was formative to their Nigerian brand This is Us. What is unique about this...
Q&A: Shelley Mokoena of Connade redefines minimalism
Shelley Mokoena is the artist, designer and creative director behind Connade, the experimental luxury womenswear brand based in Johannesburg. She describes her work as meeting at the intersection of sculptural and surreal, ancient and contemporary. This is evident in Connade’s...
Explore the roots of Stephanie Bentum’s textile art
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...
Ella Buter has created a much-loved fashion brand with enduring appeal
In an industry dominated by fleeting trends and fast fashion, Ella Buter has carved out a space where timeless design, inclusivity, and thoughtful craftsmanship take centre stage. Her approach—slow, deliberate, and deeply personal—led to the creation of Superella, a brand...
Q&A: Hamaji is a love letter to handcraft and heritage
Having grown up in Nairobi with a conservationist father and a botanist mother, Louise Sommerlatte has always had an appreciation for the beauty of the natural world. She founded her brand Hamaji − named after the Swahili word for ‘nomadic’ −...
Conscious capsules are Mother of Gao’s slow fashion statement
Fast fashion teaches that creativity requires abundance. You have to have more to do more—more clothing, more trends, more newness. Refreshingly, South African slow fashion designer, Katlego Mokwana, began her brand to remind us that this is simply not true....
Lagos Space Programme at Confections x Collections 2024
Day 2: On Wednesday (6 November), at the Mount Nelson’s Confections x Collections, Adeju Thompson, founder of the Nigerian-based Lagos Space Programme, became the first international designer to showcase his work at the annual fashion experience. With his participation, there...
Rich Mnisi at Confections x Collections 2024
Day 1: Seth Shezi opened the floor for Confections x Collections on Tuesday (5 November) wearing Rich Mnisi, the first designer to showcase at the 2024 edition of the salon-style fashion experience in Cape Town. “I’ve never felt so insecure...