Long before Shelley Mokoena ever drafted a pattern or imagined a runway, she understood fashion as a kind of language, one expressed not only through fabric but also through mood, posture and the emotional weight of clothing.
Growing up, she watched the women around her prepare for church with a quiet devotion that went beyond vanity. Dressing up was a ritual: intentional, graceful, symbolic.
“I didn’t have the vocabulary for design yet, but I understood instinctively that clothes could shift a moment, a mood, even a sense of self,” she says.
That early awareness, the sense that clothing could carry feeling, stayed with her long before she knew what to call it.
Mokoena first studied interior design, looking for a way to express “softness, structure and African imagination”. Her work in interiors proved vital in shaping not only Connade’s aesthetic but also how the designer interprets design elements.
Proportion, restraint, texture, and negative space — elements that now define the label —were concepts she first learnt while thinking about rooms, not clothes.
“It trained me to think in terms of atmosphere, not just objects,” she says. “You learn that space carries emotion and that every line, texture and colour contributes to a feeling. That same sensitivity moved into how I approach clothing.”
She began translating these ideas into fashion when she co-founded Prime Obsession with fellow designer Keneilwe Mothoa. The skills, observations and challenges of that period accumulated quietly, laying the groundwork for Connade.
There was no dramatic turning point, just a gradual settling into a world where minimalism could feel warm and expressive — a world where African heritage, architecture and organic form could meet in subtle, powerful ways. In 2019, that instinct became Connade.
Connade didn’t arrive as a conventional fashion label. It unfolded in a merging of memory, training and intuition. Mokoena describes her work as sitting “at the intersection of sculptural and surreal, ancient and contemporary”, a duality that evades categorisation. Her commitment to purity rather than excess isn’t merely an aesthetic choice; it’s a worldview. She believes in clarity. In slowness. In giving form room to speak.
Part of her mission has been challenging assumptions about what African fashion should look like. “People often assume minimalism lacks richness, or that African design must be vibrant and maximal to feel ‘authentic’,” she says.
For her, the opposite is true. Connade’s focus on texture and proportion is deeply connected to centuries of African design traditions. “African cultures have always embraced simplicity: clean geometry, strong structure, earthy materials, spiritual restraint. The misunderstanding comes from expecting African creativity to always be loud, without recognising the quiet power we’ve held for centuries.”
In that sense, Connade becomes an evolving archive of African thought, heritage and symbolism translated into form.
“I see it as a design language that respects lineage without romanticising it,” she explains. “It distils shape, texture, ritual and rhythm into something calm, intentional and contemporary.”
This sensibility is clear in her silhouettes and palettes. Connade’s largely monochromatic world forces a different kind of attentiveness. Mokoena relies on texture, structure and movement to create feeling. “Stripping away colour actually expands my creativity because it sharpens my eye. It slows me down and makes every decision matter,” she says.
Her sustainability philosophy deepens this intentionality. She approaches design with a respect for slowness, longevity and thoughtful production, values she associates with true luxury. Her SS25 collection was created entirely from existing fabrics from previous seasons, a constraint that sharpened rather than restricted her imagination.
Sourcing materials, however, brings its own challenges. While she gravitates toward tactile natural fibres, deadstock and locally produced textiles, finding the right suppliers takes time and persistence.
“I spend a lot of time researching mills, exploring small suppliers and testing how fabrics behave under stress, light and movement,” she says. “I’m looking for durability, softness and a sense of grounding. If a fabric aligns with the story of a collection and supports local craftsmanship, it becomes part of the Connade world.”
In 2023, Mokoena presented at a trade show during Milan Fashion Week, and this October she showcased in Paris as part of Tranoï, Paris Fashion Week’s official trade show partner. The response was striking in its consistency: international audiences were drawn to the sculptural softness, emotional weight and architectural discipline of her pieces.
“People responded to the intention behind the work, the restraint, the clarity and the silhouettes,” she says. “It reminded me that when a design is honest, it transcends geography.” The experience affirmed something she had long believed: quiet work can still be profoundly resonant.
Her recent showing at Confections x Collections 2025 in Cape Town marked another subtle shift. While the collection remained anchored in monochrome, she allowed a whisper of colour to enter, exploring emotional nuance without abandoning restraint.
“I’d been sitting with this idea of emotional temperature, the warmth of memory, the tenderness of returning to oneself. The palette needed a subtle shift to carry that feeling.”
As Connade evolves, Mokoena continues to choose intention over scale. She imagines the brand extending into sculpture, installation, or film, mediums that, like her clothing, communicate feeling through form, space, and atmosphere. Her hope is that Connade leaves a legacy of honesty: proof that African design can be minimalist, conceptual, rooted in memory, and deeply moving.
From the February issue of Wanted, 2026
