Phupho Gumede’s new enterprise, Rent-A-Dress, helps clients stay in style at special events without have to break the bank
or resort to fast fashion. Photo: Delwyn Verasamy
The Zulu warning “Igoli ligwinya abantu” popped into my mind while driving through grimy downtown Joburg to gentrified Maboneng on its eastern side. This city swallows people indeed, I thought. I’m a sweaty-palmed, township-to-the-suburbs person, especially when navigating areas I have never visited before.
I am fascinated by the architecture of the city, even under the graffiti and piles of rubbish, its spirits still moving in our time.
Driving past the supposedly “bustling” Kwa Mai Mai Traditional Market, for example, I smile — it’s completely different from what I see on TikTok; it’s quiet.
Luckily, there are also few cars in Maboneng, and I parallel park easily outside fashion stylist Phupho Gumede’s studio. We are early for our interview and photoshoot, so we wait in the spacious lobby for Gumede to make his grand entrance, as is proper for someone as celebrated as him.
“Hello!” he says when he arrives, wearing distressed jeans, a crisp white T, a bold blue-and-white tucked-in jersey, Dolce & Gabbana sneakers with the brightest smile I have seen all day. We all stand up and embrace.
“Sorry I took a bit of a while,” he explains with a charming smile. “I realised when I was in the car I had two different highlighters on each side of my face, so I was correcting that.”
We all laughed.
“Phupho, I cannot tell the difference — I know nothing about makeup,” I confess.
The 24-year-old Gumede is Joburg’s most sought-after stylist. Celebrities contact him to style them for awards, shows and parties. He will either seek out dresses from designers for them or construct a work of art himself.
I feel like that movie cliché where the less-fortunate lady goes to the house of the rich new friend, who has a walk-in closet to die for, and the background music is something by Beethoven. It is all there, even the music.
But I am here to talk, not try on outfits.
Gumede’s realisation that fashion extends beyond aesthetics prompted him to engage the issues of over-consumerism and environmental impact.
“As a stylist, I get a lot of people who are like, ‘Oh my God, Phupho, please style me for this event,’ and when I mention the price tag, it becomes a problem.
“I also have a friend who’s a designer, and she also has that problem where people want to hire stuff from her clothing label and she doesn’t really hire out stuff.”
Gumede takes us into the studio where he keeps the clothes for his thriving new enterprise Rent-a-Dress to talk about sustainable fashion, of which he is an enthusiastic proponent. It’s a simple but compelling project. He rents out high-fashion dresses so people don’t need to buy or get sucked into fast fashion.
According to environmental news website Earth.org, “Fast fashion refers to a large sector of the fashion industry whose business model relies on cheap and speedy production of low-quality clothing, which gets pumped quickly through stores in order to meet the latest and newest trends.”
After being worn and washed a few times, the clothes, often made of cheap synthetic materials, wear out and end up in landfills.
“Of the 1.1 million tonnes of waste disposed of at municipal landfills in 2022, 6.38% is textile,” says a report by GreenCape titled Threading the Loop: Textile Recycling and Fibre Recovery.
The global clothing market continues to grow. It was estimated at $1.5 trillion in 2021 and is projected to rise to $2 trillion by 2026, according to marketing agency GlobalEdge.
The environmental impact is staggering. The World Economic Forum reports that, “The fashion industry produces 10% of all humanity’s carbon emissions and is the second-largest consumer of the world’s water supply.”
Started last year, Rent-A-Dress offers a solution that not only benefits consumers but also helps alleviate the environmental burden caused by excessive clothing production and over-consumerism.
Through the window of the studio, you can see remnants of the city that was. Inside, however, it is all glamour. We could not help but go through all the pieces. Even our very relaxed photographer looks impressed.
Durban-born Gumede is the youngest in a family of five. His path to fashion was unconventional — he studied cosmetic surgery at the University of KwaZulu-Natal before realising it wasn’t his calling. He de-registered, without telling his parents, and enrolled for a BA in fashion at the University of Johannesburg.
This marked the beginning of a transformative journey. His sister Ayanda Ncwane provided his support system in the City of Gold. Gumede started making his mark by styling Ncwane, who became the brand ambassador for high-end fashion boutique Romeo & Jean.
“I started accompanying her when she’d go to the boutique, helping her pick out stuff. And then the owner of the boutique saw that and she offered me a job as their creative director. I was 17 at the time,” he said.
This early success set the stage for Gumede’s remarkable career, marked by achievements that defy his youth. His age — he looks younger than he is — has been a shock for many and he has been the youngest in various significant roles.
For example, he proudly notes being the first person to style 21 magazine covers under the age of 21 and becoming Netflix’s youngest ever head of department for the second season of Young, Famous & African.
“I’ve always loved the idea of my age being in correlation with my success. So, now it’s going to be pretty hard to package these things because I’m going to be an old gay,” he laughs and adds with a mischievous smile: “I’m one year away from being an old person. Like, if I walk onto a bus, you will have to stand up.”
Back to his new baby, Rent-a-Dress, of which he is clearly very proud.
The process of hiring is seamless and done online. You log in, pick out one of the dresses, which range in size from extra small to extra-extra large. You can only hire it for three days. Once you have picked your dates, you have the option to collect the dress at the warehouse or have it delivered. You then make a payment.
They have 100 units that cost up to R1 200 to rent. If you were to buy them, they would cost anywhere from R5 000 to R35 000.
“We are solving the problems of the wallet and the problems of the planet. So, we buy high-fashion, high-quality, occasional wear garments and then rent them out to the public for a specific occasion.
“So, if you have a matric dance, a wedding to attend, a graduation, a photoshoot — any occasion that you are looking forward to, and you just want to look good, and you don’t want to break the bank, we can help,” he says.
This approach challenges the convention that says being seen more than once in the same outfit is a no-no.
Gumede explains, “In our industry, there is an unspoken rule of once you have been photographed in a garment, you can’t wear it again. And this unspoken rule causes the rise in over-consumerism.”
A number of celebrities, such as award-winning content creator Mihlale Ndamese, actress Jessica Nkosi and reality TV star Tamia Mpisane, have used the services of Rent-A-Dress. Their response has been positive.
“What happens to the many people who don’t have the names to unlock certain garments from designers but also don’t have the budget to get a professional like Phupho to help them? Then we come in as Rent-A-Dress.”
Jackie May, founder and editor of Twyg magazine, a platform dedicated to narratives around fashion and sustainability, emphasises the intricate layers and complexities of sustainability ingrained in South Africa’s essence.
Highlighting the issue of landfill overflow due to clothing disposal, May says South Africa prohibits the dumping of second-hand clothing from the Global North. However, illegal imports are a challenge and requires substantial effort to control.
One of the key objectives of the department of trade and industry’s Retail — Clothing Textile Footwear Leather Master Plan 2030 (R-CTFL) is to stop the flow of illegally imported new and second-hand clothing.
According to the department, it focuses on “actions all stakeholders can undertake, and a mechanism to monitor it”.
“It represents the development of a new partnership which knows what the problems are and finding new ways to tackle them.”
May encourages consumers to actively engage in sustainable fashion practices. She advocates for an appreciation of the clothing-making process and stresses the importance of caring for garments.
Discouraging impulse purchases from fast-fashion brands, May advises investing in locally crafted designs.
“We shouldn’t be buying clothes we don’t love, because we are just buying clothes cheaply from a fast-fashion brand, so chances of you taking care of it are going to be low.”
“But if we invest money into local designers’ clothing, and really look after them, we would be doing so much, not only for the local economy, but we would be doing so much for fashion and sustainability.
“We would also be doing our bit in building cultural communities and reflecting South Africa back at us, in a way,” she says.
This is a point that aligns to what Gumede is contributing to the fashion industry.
“This movement is so layered in that it meets the South African women halfway in every sense of the word,” he says.
He is actively working towards representing South African designers in his Rent-A-Dress collection.
Gumede’s appetite for growth and success is what continues to drive him to expand his place in the fashion industry.
“I want to do more work with the AU. I want to do more pan-African projects. I want to do more styling with international figures. I want to do more campaigns with global brands. I want to do more billboards and have more moments that have density in my career.”
He continues to draw inspiration from figures such media personality Kim Kardashian, the late French designer Thierry Mugler and Olivier Rousteing, who is Balmain’s creative director, to name a few.
In an industry often criticised for its environmental impact, Gumede stands as a beacon of change, reshaping the fashion landscape through innovation, sustainability and a commitment to cultural preservation. A big responsibility to carry but he will not let anything stand in his way. Not even fear.
“Everything you want is on the other side of fear,” he says.