Nuturing SA designers

GERRY CUPIDO

SOUTH African fashion designers have proven time again that they belong at international fashion events.

At the beginning of this year, East London-born Lukhanyo Mdingi showcased his Africaninspired collection, Bodyland, at the Autumn/Winter 2022 collection at Paris Fashion Week.

Thebe Magugu, winner of the LVMH Prize for Young Fashion Designers, unveiled his collection, Banyoloyi A Bosigo, at Paris Fashion Week in 2021.

It’s undeniable that there’s ann abundance of creative talent in our country. The challenge, however, is to get the world to see more of it. Nkano Senyolo, the founder of IFW Business, is determined to do just that.

IFW Business is a company which assists upcoming and registered South African fashion designers by educating them on how to build their businesses.

Senyolo, a fashion design graduate from the faculty of Art Design and Architecture at the University of Johannesburg who has more than 11 years of experience in the fashion industry, noticed that there was an imbalance in the industry in that African fashion trends was behind, there were a lot of creative designers but not enough exposure, and a lot of talented individuals but most of them lacked business acumen, and the fashion industry in South Africa was underrated.

She founded IFW Business and IFW Projects, an NGO, in 2019.

Her company objectives include connecting designers with garment construction manufacturers, assisting designers in building a sustainable online business that will attract more traffic for consumers and buyers, securing and organising overseas fashion show attendance and exhibitions as well as building outstanding fashion portfolios for the designer.

The company is currently managing a group of 10 South African fashion designers, and their collections and working on expanding its portfolio successively to eventually become the go-to brand for creative individuals or fashion designers that seek to grow their business brand, access resources and have more business opportunities, nationally and internationally.

After a successful debut in Amsterdam, Netherlands, in March where they showcased two talented South African fashion designers, Sandi Mazibuko and House of Fabrosanz, they were offered the opportunity to take part in other international fashion shows.

In August the company will be taking two local designers to Turkey to showcase their work at the Cappadocia Fashion Week.

Cappadocia Fashion Week is an annual event organised by Africa Fashion Week Europe (AFWEU) to give designers a platform to showcase their garments.

The two South African brands that will be showcasing at the Cappadocia Fashion Week are Nguni Brand and House of Fabrosanz.

Nguni Brand is a Durban label co-founded by Rapule Mathonsi (creative director), Nandi Mtsokoba (production director) and Wendy Magafela (sales director). It is inspired by the Nguni culture. They draw most of their inspiration from Zulu, Xhosa, Swati, and Ndebele culture and incorporate a bit from the Sotho culture to create unique patterns.

“We want people all over the world to be exposed to the beauty of our cultures. We are a young, traditional and vibrant brand,” says Mathonsi.

Fabrosanz (FRS) was founded in 2011 by designer Sandisiwe Mazibuko. Fabrosanz stands for Fabulous Royalty Sanz with Sanz being a shortened version for Sandisiwe’s name. The brand name describes how Sandi would like to feel when wearing her garments: fabulous and royal. FRS makes clothes for women and men with its own culturally-inspired prints, the Nguni print being the most successful as it is bought globally.

It is important for Fabrosanz to translate the Zulu culture into wearable garments as it represents where she comes from.

In celebration of being in the industry for 10 years, the brand took inspiration from the previous collections and developed the Venda, Tsonga and Sepedi-inspired prints – launched in 2021.

“Our collection offerings are inspired by fabrics, colours, and motifs depicted on the traditional attire of these cultures,” says Mazibuko.

IFW Business plans to get other local designers to shows such as Nairobi Fashion Week in November and Istanbul Fashion Week in December.