ARTICLES

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Fashion isn't just the clothes that you wear, fashion is a performance. To most people fashion may seem like a superficial or futile topic, but what we wear, how we wear it and where we choose to wear it holds significance that isn't just vain or meaningless.

On the African continent, clothing is never just about style or aesthetic, the clothing produced in Africa holds identity, pain and survival in every stitch. So, what happens when these identities and stories are taken, repackaged, and sold to the highest bidder? Cape Town, in many ways, illustrates this.

Reveal Yourself, Africa: Fashion at the Forefront

Africa Matshingana shares how he is building his brand, Vela M’Africa that centres his Xhosa heritage and prioritizes men's traditional clothing

Dressed in a monochrome suit and traditional headband, Africa's bubbly energy and sophisticated style signals a man who prioritizes his brand. With roots in Transkei and moving to Cape Town to further his studies in Human Anatomy and biochemistry, Africa found another passion: fashion...

Five African Fashion Brands You Should Know

African fashion is a fast-rising industry, valued at over a billion dollars in 2022 and set to continue growing. Here are five Afrocentric designers taking over the fashion scene, combining the contemporary and traditional to redefine high fashion.

When African Fashion Goes Global: Celebration or Exploitation?

Fashion has always borrowed: silhouettes, prints, ideas, but when it borrows from cultures with long histories of being silenced, the line between admiration and exploitation starts to blur.

This feature explores that debate, examining cultural history, case studies, and legal perspectives.

A Look Into The 2025 Fashion Year

The South African fashion scene has been abuzz this year -- from the Spring/Summer South African Fashion Week in April to FAME Week starting on the first of September. Here’s a round-up of what’s been happening in the industry in 2025.

Colonial couture: The Battle for South Africa’s Luxury Fashion Identity

From Khayelitsha to Camps Bay, conversations about style, identity, and spending power are changing. Three decades after the end of Apartheid, South Africa’s definition of luxury is being rewritten. What was once the exclusive language of European fashion houses now sits beside the growing confidence of locals reclaiming what luxury means in Africa.

5 Things You Didn’t Know About Zulu Attire

You’ve seen the beadwork and bold prints but do you know the stories they tell? Ekhaya World founder, Ndumiso Zondi, uncovers 5 fascinating things you might not know about Zulu attire.

From Home To Horizon

At just 22, Ndumiso Zondi is already redefining what it means to wear your culture with pride. Here’s the story behind Ekhaya World, the brand weaving Zulu heritage into the fabric of modern fashion.

Student Voices On Afrocentric Fashion

For some, Afrocentric fashion embodies cultural pride, for others, it feels like something reserved for special days or luxury runways. Three UCT students, Emihle, Ntsika, and Palesa, shared their perspectives on what Afrocentric fashion means to them and how they see its place in today’s youth culture.

What is Afrocentric Fashion? A White Woman’s Answer

How does a white South African woman make Afrocentric fashion? For over thirty years, Ilse has led Mnandi Textiles in Cape Town, weaving stories of African identity into fabric and proving that authenticity is not skin-deep. Each garment carries the labour of skilled artisans and the layered histories of the fabrics themselves.

Ilse admits with a laugh: “I realised I don’t really like fashion, I like fabric,” Ilse van der Merwe admits, reflecting on her preference for the material over trends. That confession cuts to the heart of Afrocentric design. It is not about chasing trends or seasonal moods, but about the stories textiles carry, the heritage they encode, and the labour that shapes them. For Ilse, Africanness is not a label or marketing hook. It is a process, “respecting the cloth before you even cut it.” Patience, respect, and craft become her compass.

Not Fast, Not Cheap, Not Sorry: Afrocentric Fashion Too Expensive? You’re Wrong

How much should a shirt cost? At Mnandi Textiles in Cape Town, the answer is not in rands, but in hours, hands, and histories. To dismiss Afrocentric fashion as “too expensive” is to miss the point entirely because what leaves Mnandi’s workshop is not just clothing, but labour, memory, and art stitched into fabric. From street-level makers to boutique ateliers, the story is the same: African fashion carries the weight of history, skill, and care, that weight deserves recognition. Across the continent, designers insist that slow, deliberate work is not a limitation but a choice. Adebayo Oke-Lawal of Orange Culture in Lagos explains that their small-scale production avoids mass manufacturing, letting every stitch honour craft rather than speed.

The life of a garment begins long before a needle pierces cloth. Fabrics are hunted down with reverence: hand-dyed mudcloths alive with centuries-old symbols, wax prints whose bold patterns ripple with the confidence of West African aesthetics, cottons dyed deep indigo by artisans who still dip and wring by hand. In the early days, Ilse and her team travelled dusty roads to Malawian markets, rolling fabric between their fingers, tracing the rhythm of prints. Today, photographs and screens replace those trips, but the ritual remains the same: choosing cloth not for convenience, but for story.

African Threads: How Afrocentric Fashion is formed

Mostly worn as formal wear for traditional ceremonies or purchased as souvenirs for tourists, African fashion designers have pioneered a new language for Afrocentric fashion

Africa is a colourful continent of various cultures and stories. When fashion is brought to the conversation, how do we identify what makes a fashion brand Afrocentric? According to The African Touch, “African fashion is a vibrant tapestry that reflects the continent’s rich history, diverse cultures, and evolving creativity.” It is the way a designer communicates their cultural heritage and connects with their African consumers.