Give Her A Crown: From back: Keneilwe Mothoa, Manthe Ribane, Thando Ntuli, Gugu Peteni and Tsakani Mashaba
Give Her A Crown: From back: Keneilwe Mothoa, Manthe Ribane, Thando Ntuli, Gugu Peteni and Tsakani Mashaba
Image: Supplied

“Style is in the essence of my people,” Lebo Mashile writes in a poem that puts the X-factor of SA, and Africa by extension, into perspective. “When my people express their beauty, the whole world goes into a trance...,” Mashile writes.

This transfixing quality of SA style and its essence is beautifully captured in Milisuthando Bongela Davis’ experience with the five SA designers that recently showcased at New York Fashion Week under the Jaguar Give Her A Crown campaign. It is also evident in how SA and the continent continue to influence global culture — from the Amapiano wave to the resonance of the voices of Thebe Magugu and Lukhanyo Mdingi in fashion for instance.

After their New York debut, the 2024 #GiveHerACrown designers Manthe Ribane, Gugu Peteni, Thando Ntuli, Keneilwe Mothoa, and Tsakani Mashaba brought their collections home for a showcase that resonated.

#GiveHerACrown is an empowerment platform that uses the arts and storytelling to champion gender equality by highlighting the stories of women trailblazers, survivors, activists and the next generation. Jaguar has supported the platform since its launch in 2020, featuring varied artistic expressions. Proceeds from the Crown Collection support the Crown Bursary, which helps young talents being nurtured to become the next wave of creatives shaping Africa’s future.

Working with the 2024 theme, Shifting Perspectives, the five #GiverHerACrown designers interpreted it in ways that engage with history, memory, ideas of home, individualism, dignity and the liminal to highlight the role of women in reshaping culture, leadership and innovation. They are part of the generation that is challenging cultural inscriptions, questioning the validity of iconic slogans such as Wathint’ abafazi, wathint’ imbokodo (You strike a woman you strike a rock); a generation that points out that, “I’m not a rock, I’m soft and I feel,” as a young woman once said for instance.

From Keneilwe Mothoa and Neimil's Leeto La Ka collection
From Keneilwe Mothoa and Neimil's Leeto La Ka collection
Image: Supplied

Fight contradictions

Peteni converses in streetwear and came up through fashion competitions such as SA Fashion Week’s Scouting Menswear with a swag of her own. Hero-ing wool and mohair she finds authenticity in clever, quirky design details and colour combinations. Her Jaguar collection subverts the “Do not tumble dry” clothing note as a message for women to not shrink themselves. The oversizing in the collection, working with faux leather, helps contradict the shrinkage message for a metaphoric juxtaposition.

“As a woman in menswear, I fight contradictions daily. When you tumble dry something, it shrinks. It distorts the fabric, Peteni said.

From Gugu Peteni's 'Do Not Tumble Dry' Collection
From Gugu Peteni's 'Do Not Tumble Dry' Collection
Image: Supplied

“The collection encourages women to take up space and live outside the boundaries. We also took the “do not tumble dry” symbol and made a pattern out of it. The leather serves to bring a masculinity and self-assuredness to our message and the mohair and knitted elements are the supportive soft and feminine features. The collection is a love letter to myself. With it I’m asserting myself and respecting my voice.”

Mashaba’s Hamethop label name borrows from the Hamites of Cush and Ethiopia and works with the idea of a less colonised Africa as a springboard for her design ethos, which prioritises African craft and innovation. Established in 2015, Hamethop came onto the scene with striking artisanal handbags and womenswear that champion African architecture and art, like the Tiébélé Arc Bag, which draws from the Tiébélé village in Burkina Faso.

From Tsakani Mashaba and Hamethop's Resonance collection
From Tsakani Mashaba and Hamethop's Resonance collection
Image: Supplied

Uncolonised Africa

“I do a lot of innovation regarding our craft. I love African craft. We have an interesting aesthetic. Our hands tell a different story to the stories of any region in the world. And I love celebrating and innovating that. That is why the name symbolises how interesting it would be to showcase who we are when we haven’t been interrupted by colonialism,” Mashaba said.

This puts a fantastical spin to her innovation, which sees her working with what’s available as she imagines what an uncolonised Africa could look like while creating from a contemporary place.

“When I transitioned into different collections, I started realising that I like that liminal space — that space of the in-between, the dream and spirit space. I’m now finding that even if I could be inspired by something that I could see, it was interesting to imagine what we could be without anything that we have ever seen. That is how I innovate.”

From the Munkus Iphupho collection
From the Munkus Iphupho collection
Image: Supplied

For the Jaguar collection, Resonance, Mashaba connected with the foundational elements of who we are — exploring unseen presences and the stillness and memory that comes with that. Imageries of rich earth come up in a regal print. Fabric manipulation in the knits presents an elegant texture of the rough and soft. The Xibelani from Mashaba’s Tsonga culture gets a cheeky treatment, all in a beautifully tailored collection that marked Mashaba’s first runway collection.

“I was quite intentional about what my first runway show should look like and where it would be seen. I felt I needed that intention to be felt outside home as well. Right now, the essence of what we do is needed. Not for diversity, but because it adds a beautiful colour. Our hands tell a beautiful story,” Mashaba said.

Freeing colour, unhindered dream states and childlike glee is what the Munkus collection called Iphupho (Dream) presented. Ntuli’s design ethos derives from the name she’s called at home, Munkus, and with it she encapsulates the authenticity of who you are at home — which could be your most loud, bright or colourful self.

From Manthe Ribane's M.Aura collection
From Manthe Ribane's M.Aura collection
Image: Supplied

Mothoa’s Leeto La Ka (Journey) collection paid homage to the rich cultural heritage of the Pedi and Ndebele tribes of Kwa Ndebele in Mpumalanga and how that speaks to her as an individual. She blends structure and fluidity to show the ever-changing nature of reality and works with a colour palette of rich reds for passion, earthy browns and creams for a grounding that reminds her of home.

With her sculptural and avant-garde designs, multidisciplinary artist Ribane presented the M Aura collection that honoured the dignity of women with her conceptual approach to design.

“Style is in the survival of my people,” Mashile concludes her poem. Survival is mutually linked to evolution. The spirit of SA’s style is in good hands and evolving. The hands of a generation that is shifting narratives, honouring its lineage and staying true to the essence that makes them who they are — as seen with the 2024 Jaguar Give Her A Crown campaign.

© Wanted 2024 - If you would like to reproduce this article please email us.
X