The power of storytelling at SA Fashion Week

Mocha mousse may be the colour of the year but shades of green peppered the New Talent competition collections at SA Fashion Week (SAFW)’s Spring/Summer 25 season. From last year’s winner Oddity, finalists Estella James, James Presents to the 2025 winner, Ngano Design Africa.

The colour is a call for tranquillity in the upheavals of our times. It also conjures up our connection to earth as encapsulated in James Presents’ collection called Gardens of Soweto. It captures designer, James Moroeng’s childhood nostalgia of his neighbour’s pristine garden and memories of stealing a peach from the neighbour’s tree now and again.

It is this relation to the earth that needs constant and urgent nurturing as unpredictable weather patterns and floods persist to signal a changing planet. Working sustainably is a prerequisite of the competition as is creating prints. This has seen various and interesting print creations over the years and an upcycling and creative expansion of different materials, denim being a recurring one.

As luxury gets more personal, fashion and design become the vehicles for the stories of designers who draw from their lives, cultures and heritage. The New Talent winner, Tanaka Magirazi Vengere (for Ngano Design Africa) tells the story of transformation. The migrant story that characterises the lives of many Joburg dwellers who come from the different corners of rural life to find work, dreams and survival in the urban city. The collection represents this with a balance of simplicity and quirk and a meeting of the traditional with urbanity. With a background in fashion design, Vengere trained in Italy and SA and showcased refined technical skill and craftsmanship that saw him bring eclecticism to a garment — with different prints, textures, craft and colours that are all cohesive.

“I adored Tanaka Magirazi of Ngano Designs’ sophisticated draping, construction and layering. He managed to create a world of effortless dressing fused with a contemporary African energy,” said SAFW New Talent judge Sahil Harilal.

Vengere designs for “creative people” he says and the restrained theatricality of his designs speaks to his drawing from theatre, modern art and historical clothing. He also has experience in costume design — a great tool in enhancing storytelling. Part of the mandate for the judges of the SAFW New Talent competition is choose designers who are industry ready and Vengere is poised to take it on with his assured voice and skill.

Storytelling is an experience and Gert-Johan Coetzee presented a sensorial spectacle for his collection, The Arrival. Taking inspiration from intergalactic worlds, science-fiction and African craft and motifs, the collection “imagines a future rooted in the past. A world where heritage endures, even across galaxies. A journey through identity, evolution and belonging.”

For the designer, the show was a deeply personal journey.

“Even after all the accolades, I sometimes ask myself, ‘Do I really belong here?’ That feeling of questioning your worth is at the heart of this collection,” Coetzee said. “But what I’ve come to learn is that heritage doesn’t wait for us to be confident. It moves through us, regardless. It’s already in us.”

His collection brimmed with captivating imagery that merges futuristic elements with traditional symbols. Coupled with a clever exploration and deconstruction of the houndstooth print and added dimensionality to print and texture.

Of this explorative approach, he said, “I’ve always seen textiles as language, they speak before the silhouette does. For this collection, I wanted the fabric to challenge tradition, not just carry it.

“Houndstooth, for example, is a classic Western motif. I wanted to deconstruct it, to remix it with African rhythm and rebellion. What does heritage look like when it’s fractured, reshaped, made new? That’s what inspired me.”

Coetzee said: “I was also deeply inspired by the contrast of tension and softness, power and vulnerability, structure and fluidity. So I played with unexpected surfaces: reflective metallics, soft mesh with structured corsetry, exaggerated silhouettes layered over clean tailoring.

“The goal was to create emotional texture, not just visual or tactile. Every fabrication choice was meant to feel alive, to carry memory and momentum.”

The density of the collection matched the magnitude of the narrative. It had been in the making for some time. 

“This collection has been in quiet evolution for over a year, not just in time, but in emotional and cultural depth. I believe storytelling in fashion only becomes powerful when it’s layered, and that takes time to unfold,” Coetzee said. 

“I didn’t want to just create looks, I wanted to build a world. One that reflects who we are as Africans, how we dream globally, and how we carry tradition into the future. Each piece is a narrative thread, about identity, power, elegance, transformation.

He said: “The collection’s density comes from research, introspection, collaboration, and experimentation. It matured over months of textile development, sketch refinement, and soul-searching, until every garment spoke with clarity and conviction. It wasn’t just designed. It was lived into.”

The story resonates as the future it imagines may not be too far away with the search for life beyond earth and finding other habitable planets an ongoing scientific endeavour. The futures we imagine may be closer than we think. And we were transported in thread and story, assured of heritage as our adorning armour.