Three designers rewriting SA menswear

SA Menswear Week (SAMW) AW25 arrives as a decisive declaration: menswear on the continent is evolving, and fast. Three rising designers — Michael Ludwig, Ezokhetho, and Siyababa Atelier — are reshaping the space between streetwear, tailoring, and cultural testimony. Their collections speak to memory, identity, and the unapologetic act of becoming.

Michael Ludwig Studio: The architecture of blooming

“Abundant Anthesis reminds us that the process of growth and self-discovery is what truly matters,” says Michael Ludwig Hittinger, creative director of Michael Ludwig Studio

Inspired by the indigenous Black Orchid, Michael Ludwig’s Abundant Anthesis is a study in duality and internal transformation. The collection honours “blooming within oneself and for oneself,” balancing structure with softness, formality with fluidity.

The Tweed Calyx Wrap Skirt flares like an opening petal, paired with a cropped jacket and Matisse-inspired white denim embroidered in crimson — encapsulating floral anatomy.

Ludwig’s Motif Denim Suit in ivory and red embroidery is a harmonious union of natural inspiration and sharp tailoring that resists traditional gender codes.

Ezokhetho: Love, loss, and legacy

“ZODWA is a tribute to love that endures, even in absence,” Mpumelelo Dhlamini, founder and creative director of Ezokhetho, says.

Where Ludwig looks inward, Ezokhetho looks backwards — not in nostalgia, but in reverent remembrance. ZODWA is named after the affectionate nickname the designer’s father gave his mother, and emerges as a textured love letter to black SA partnership during the 1980s and 1990s. It’s the label’s first menswear collection, and its most emotionally charged collection yet.

Tailored pink pinstripe short suits sit beside jagged-panel slip dresses in vibrant animal print, echoing an era of post-apartheid optimism. A voluminous pink, jacquard dress with balloon sleeves and yellow trim channels Sunday best with an elegiac twist.

Most memorable is a power suit in shimmering patchwork, worn seated and styled with confidence — a regal stance that speaks to legacy, glamour and memory.

Siyababa Atelier: When grief wears colour

“This isn’t about mourning in silence. It’s a celebration of life, love and legacy,” says Siyabonga Mtshali, founder and creative force behind Siyababa Atelier.

With Siyazila — which translates to We Are Grieving — Siyababa Atelier returns to SAMW with a collection that transforms personal loss into vivid, wearable memory. Dedicated to founder Mtshali’s late sister, Nontobeko Mtshali, this body of work doesn’t shy away from pain — it channels it into power.

The collection builds emotionally and visually. Before Siyazila, Mtshali introduced garments that explored disorder and transition: grid-printed co-ordinates, painterly tailoring, and lace against structured silhouettes. These were statement pieces and signals of emotional turbulence, of a designer laying the groundwork for something deeper.

Then Siyazila emerges, unapologetically bold. Sculpted, leopard-print pieces twist around the body with intent, revealing metallic lace and bare skin. Zebra-striped hoods and draped silhouettes speak in the language of ritual — garments not just worn, but inhabited. The use of colour and texture is assertive, drawing grief into sharp focus and refusing to let it be backgrounded.

This season, Mtshali collaborated with visual artist Zandile Tshabalala to create a custom garment that merges the brand’s expressive silhouette with Tshabalala’s signature painted language. LIKKYLIKS, an experimental musician and artist, brought sonic texture to the collection, transforming its emotional moodboard into a soundscape. The installation’s video component, shown at SAMW, was directed by Retang Sebeka, whose lens layered the garments with narrative resonance.

These collaborations extend Siyazila beyond fashion and into a multisensory meditation on mourning and memory. It’s a diaristic body of work: sharp, intimate, and impossible to ignore. Mtshali doesn’t design grief as absence — he designs it as presence.

The future is now

While global fashion wrings its hands over algorithmic designers and shareholder-safe choices, SA’s emerging voices are doing something else entirely: they're making work rooted in truth, not trends.

Michael Ludwig speaks to internal blossoming, Ezokhetho honours enduring love in the face of grief, and Siyababa Atelier turns mourning into modern mythology. Together, they represent a future of fashion that doesn't ask for permission — it simply begins.

SA Menswear Week happens in Cape Town from May 2 - 3.