Marianne Fassler designs clothing from her creative workshop Leopard Frock in Saxonwald, Johannesburg. Fassler has over 30 years of experience in the fashion business. She sells her garments retail from Leopard Frock as well as doing private consultations. Drawing inspiration from the environment of Johannesburg and South Africa as a whole, her work reflects the…
Thula Sindi is a South African fashion designer based in Johannesburg since 2005. Sindi was born in Klerksdorp, a city in the North West province of South Africa. He discovered his interest in fine arts at a young age and says “I found fashion a perfect medium to mix colors, concepts, and proportions.” Thula Sindi studied at…
Maria McCloy describes herself as an “urban culture-loving publicist, journalist, accessory designer and African print shoes and clutch creator.” She has been working out of Johannesburg since 1997. As a second-year student in Journalism at Rhodes University she co-founded Outrageous Records. The company closed in 2009 but would not be the end of McCloy’s talents…
Based out of Cape Town, South Africa, Katherine-Mary Pichulik is not only a trained artist but also a pastry chef. After working in a bakery and interning at a fine arts magazine in London, she went on a backpacking trip to Spain and India that would set the scene for her future. PICHULIK was founded…
Celeste Lee Arendse is a fashion designer living in Cape Town, South Africa. She graduated with a fashion design degree from Cape Peninsula University of Technology in 2007 and started her own Cape Town based clothing company, Selfi, in 2009. Along with starting her company in 2009, she was also an Elle New Talent finalist.…
Laduma Ngxokolo founded his knitwear brand MaXhosa by Laduma in 2010. The brand was born from a desire to create knitwear suitable for amakrwala (initiates of the Xhosa people). Upon being initiated into manhood, they are expected to ascribe to the tradition of wearing new formal clothing for the following six months. Ngxokolo has himself…
Born in Lesotho, a landlocked country completely surrounded by South Africa, fashion designer Thabo Makhetha graduated from the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. Makhetha first established her company in 2009 as a made-to-order boutique in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. She is best known for her ready-to-wear collection of capes and coats constructed out of Basotho blankets.…
Rich Mnisi is a Johannesburg-based designer who founded his self-titled brand, RICH MNISI, in 2014. His first collection won accolades including Africa Fashion International Young Designer of the Year. This successful start to his career occurred right after his completion of his BA in fashion design and business management from LISOF, Leaders in the Science…
Khosi Nkosi is a fashion brand established in 2008 when the designer, Nobukhosi Nkosi won a Young Designers Competition. The brand is available exclusively through the Young Designers Emporium (YDE) a chain store in South Africa that features young South African designers. YDE was founded in 1995 as a collaboration among a group of young…
Gert-Johan Coetzee is a South African fashion designer based in Linden, Johannesburg in Gauteng province. He is known as “one of South Africa’s most popular and successful designers”. Coetzee discovered his interest in fashion when he was 8 years old and began designing tissue-paper dresses for his pencils while at school. He took his first…
Craig Jacobs founded Fundudzi in 2004 with a commitment to mentoring young talent and celebrating Africa’s tradition of handicraft while embracing a modern aesthetic. Jacob named the brand after Lake Fundudzi, which is a sacred place for the vhaVenda people in the Soutpansberg mountain range in northern Limpopo Province. He sees his line of clothing…
Jenevieve Lyons brings a highly conceptual focus to her fashion design. She draws from many fields of study and reinterprets them into clothing. For example her line for Autumn/Winter 2016 is titled Macula meaning spot or freckle. The inspiration for the collection was the movie Moshanyana, which is the story of an albino boy with…
Shaldon Kopman has worked in many capacities in the fashion industry. He began as a model then worked many years as a stylist before becoming a creative director and designer. He started Naked Ape in 2010 as a bespoke brand and four years later he opened its flagship store in Rosebank, Johannesburg. Kopman has branched out…
Fashions of Southern Africa 