WeeklySA_AdminRAMP:Continent’s designers Rich Mnisi, Emmy Kasbit and Sindiso Khumalo step on to world stage’s big-time…
By Mpumi Brown
Africa’s fashion industry has recently been in the global spotlight for its brilliant new school of designers, who have sparked additional interest in fashion talent from the continent and contributed to its growing impact on the global market.
Emmy Kasbit, Rich Mnisi, and Sindiso Khumalo delve into history and tradition in SS21 collections fit for the present and future with their features earlier this week at Milan Fashion Week.
Emmanuel Okoro, founder and creative director of Nigeria-based label Emmy Kasbit, has gone from making clothes as a hobby to winning the Lagos Fashion Week Fashion Focus Program for emerging designers in 2018. Emmy Kasbit showcased his SS21 collection tagged “Unity Redefined” during Milan Fashion Week.
This season’s idea, as the designer revealed, is refashioned from some of the label’s previous collections.
“… It has been a sheer gift being able to redefine pieces from the past in a new and unique way,”
Okoro’s collection included fringe skirts, emblazoned as motif on shirts, jackets representing the Nsibidi Eastern Nigerian symbol of unity.
“It has to do with hope, perseverance, and love” says Emmanuel
Alongside Emmy Kasbit, well-known, rising star Rich Mnisi exhibited an energetic collection fuelled by dynamic colours and patterns. The designer built his brand on cheeky, gender-defying clothes that appeal to the masses.
The collection “Hiya Kaya”, which means “going home” in Xitsonga, one of the 11 official languages of South Africa spoken by the VaTsonga ethnic group. Mnisi’s label took inspiration from his mother and VaTsonga culture.
His digital presentation showcases, not only the beauty of his clothes, but also that of the landscape of his country of origin. The film was shot in three locations across South Africa: rural Limpopo, picturesque Eastern Cape and Western Cape, celebrating the designer’s heritage with animated patterns and clashing prints, an aesthetic with which Mnisi has become synonymous.
Sindiso Khumalo’s brand is centered on powerful women in history that have both empowered and inspired her. Based in Cape Town, Khumalo named the collection Minty, which was American political activist HarrietTubman’s moniker. Her show was filmed in the lush farms of a small town called Philadelphia, outside of Cape Town, and features an isolated model who appears lost or on a journey, making her way through massive farmlands and grazing fields, a nod to both Tubman and the times we live in now with the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Violence against black women has been in existence since Harriet Tubman’s time and still exists today, with Uyinene Mrwetyana in South Africa, Breonna Taylor in America, and the young school girls from Nigeria who were stolen by Boko Haram. These events are all linked, and the violence happens across borders. What I try to do with my collections is to pay homage to women like Harriet Tubman and also give visibility to this issue.” says Khumalo.
Khumalo is fascinated by 20th century dressing forms and portraiture, and this time she played around with chelsea, puritan and flat-style collars, each one adding a new personality to each dress. An Edwardian style, black, floor-sweeping gown reminiscent of Tubman’s attire is perhaps the most powerful hint at the homage to the historic figure.
In another instance, Tubman’s name features alongside another one of the designers muses, Charlotte Maxeke—the first Black South African woman to graduate with a college degree in 1903. It is displayed above pockets of handwoven blue cotton suits made in Burkina Faso, while hand crochet pockets, in partnership with a Cape Town-based NGO that supports women out of exploitative sex work with stable employment, emerge on a pinstripe jacket.
Khumalo plied her bon-ton aesthetic to pay homage to the cultural treasures gathered at Cape Town’s Jagger African Studies Library, which was destroyed last April by a wildfire.
The subject offered the designer a chance to celebrate the cultural heritage of the African continent and give a second life to all the lost books, maps and illustrations used as prints for her charming spring offering.
Khumalo’s usual BCBG look with a 1950s flair was translated into a line-up filled with skirt suits and shirt-dresses done in vivid colours and prints for girls who want their fashion to be both flattering and meaningful.
As an advocate for sustainability, and an Ethical Fashion Initiative collaborator, Khumalo’s message on dress forms has never been more lucid—her brand is firmly based on the essentials. And, that’s clearly not about to change.
Credits :Direction – DML @Productionbydml
Photography – Niyi Oladele @surf_diary_
Videography – Niyi Oladele @surf_diary_
Makeup – Uche Enyokwa @Sutchaygallery
Female Model – Rebecca Fabunmi @Rebeccafabunmi_ @Fewmodels
Male Model – Ghafar Bello @Ghaffar.Bello @Ledmodelmgt
Collaborations
Footwear in collaboration with @martinsjohnsonofficial
Jewellery In Collaboration with @ScarLuxury
