Thebe Mabanga
Sechaba Mogale and Wandile Nzimande are living the new South African dream. In 1997 they established Loxion Kulca (Location or Township Culture), a casual-wear label that was started by sewing woolen hats. Since then, with perseverance and dedication, they have nurtured the label into a young and thriving enterprise.
Their stay in the industry has largely been due to their refusal to limit their grasp to a feel for fabrics, but rather to extend it to a feel for the bottom line. Entrepreneurial savvy has dominated the creative dimension of their work. Over the years, even in informal meetings, a casual inquiry about how things are going would cause a mini motivational lecture and grand plans for the near future.
”We are not in this business for the money,” says Nzimande. ”Sure we have made some money, but when you make money and decide to eat out now instead of saving it, you run the risk of being unable to keep eating in the future.” Both have always maintained that they want to get to the point where they can recruit other designers and empower them. Now it is a reality.
Nzimande and Mogale run two companies. Loxion Kulca remains an independent outfit that provides rugged streetwear and has been expanded to produce ultra-comfortable, quality footwear and funky headgear. In its early stages the label faced criticism of being nothing more than a derivative of United States streetwear labels such as Daymon Johnson’s For Us By Us. Mogale concedes this but says: ”You need to introduce people to something they are familiar with first before bringing out something new. We have to first match [US] labels before exceeding their standards.”
Lokul Kreationz is a holding company with a range of subsidiary labels. These include Rose Supreme and Wikid Likwid by Rustenburg-born 25-year-old Tebogo Mwase (seen on the Friday cover).
Mwase sees the role of her label as complementing the Loxion Kulca range by offering women’s clothing. The name is a misspelt version of wicked liquid she looks to lethal fluid for inspiration. ”Wicked represents acid, a liquid that can penetrate,” she says. ”Liquid represents colours like grey and blue that I like to use in stretch fabric.”
Stretch fabric served Mwase well in her final year as a fashion design student at Natal Technikon. These days she creates streetwear inspired by formal-wear design. It comes in stretch fabric to make it functional and has hints of military-wear detail. ”Fashion is too vague sometimes. As designers we design something that we like without thinking whether the public will like it,” she says.
Following an informal meeting between the Loxion Kulca proprietors and Queen Langangamaza of Swaziland, Mwase’s work has been met with approval and she now has the privilege of dressing royalty.
The ethos of Loxion Kulca is a township one. The clothes look more comfortable on a makeshift ramp of spray-painted oil drums supporting pallets on a patch of ground in Mofolo Park. Sadly, they have realised that their target market has limited buying power and have had to broaden their appeal. To do this they are about to launch a limited, upmarket range. They also have to edge closer towards the mainstream and aim for platforms like the recently concluded Fashion Week.
A black label that has enjoyed the benefits of being endorsed by the mainstream is Nkhensani Manganyi’s Stoned Cherrie. For if Loxion Kulca represents a township child who has grown to make good of his lot, then Stoned Cherrie is the making of aristocracy born with a silver needle in its mouth.
Having conquered academia with an honours degree from Wits and then taking on celluloid as an actress, TV presenter and comedian, Manganyi established Stoned Cherrie as a platform for young designers. At inception it was touted as a black-owned Young Designers Emporium.
The label opened its shop in the heart of consumerist suburbia, Rosebank, Johannesburg, and had its first show in last year’s Fashion Week. It now boasts two permanent designers, Sonja Niewioudt and Thabani Mavundla. Nomalanga Nyanda supports their work with her crocheted items and, for this year’s Fashion Week, they collaborated with Nokwanda Ngcobo to produce a bold and innovative range.
Stoned Cherrie has used one of the most undervalued resources the country has, the Bailey Historical Archives, to churn out inspired retro. Using images from Drum magazines, Mavundla put the images on garments made mainly of hemp, the fabric of choice this spring, preferred for its lightness and versatility.
The young couturiers and enterprises are ready to take on the fashion capitals of the world.