You couldn’t get two more different approaches to fashion. Think classic glamour, spiked with rich and vibrant fabrics alongside darker, dystopian visions of an industry finding its way through the tumult of society. That’s Thula Sindi alongside Athi-Patra Ruga. And it’s these two local fashion designers who have been selected to represent South Africa in the L’Afrique est à la mode (Africa is in Fashion) competition in Niger later this year.
But, despite being so different in their approaches to their art, these two young designers share a few common ideas when it comes to the local industry and its role on the continent. And both see the competition as a unique opportunity to celebrate African fashion.
The biannual competition is organised by Culturesfrances and Festival International de la Mode Africaine or the International Festival of African Fashion. CulturesFrances is the cultural agency for the French ministry of foreign affairs and culture and communication. The driving force behind the competition is renowned Malian fashion designer Alphadi and this is the second time the competition is being held.
For Sindi, who runs his own studio in Rosebank, Johannesburg, this will be his first trip into another part of Africa. The young designer, who travelled to Paris to show some of his work, alongside three other young South African designers, during the Paris Fashion Week, sees the competition as a great opportunity to network with other African fashion designers.
‘South Africa can be very inward- looking in that respect, so I am looking forward to seeing what other young African designers are doing,†says Sindi.
The drive for African designers to find and create ‘African designs†limits them to creating garments that end up looking like little more than costumes.
‘We imprison ourselves in this country by making costumes,†he argues.
His time in Paris exposed him to an ‘educated audience†who are very aware of the needs and driving forces behind a global industry. The importance of seeing a garment as a product that will appeal to everyone should not be forgotten, according to Sindi. A good design, inspired by Xhosa culture, for instance, needs to appeal to global consumers, he argues.
‘If you don’t sell clothes, it’s like music,†he says, ‘If noone is buying or listening to it, it doesn’t exist.â€
Athi-Patra Ruga believes the perceived need to create an ‘Afro-chic†aesthetic is in itself prescriptive.
‘Such exotic generalisations have led to a form of disembodiment as fashion is about how this body exists in the environment,†says Ruga.
And, through his work, which straddles both the fashion and arts world, Ruga challenges the conventions associated with the fashion world. His edgy documentations, such as Die Naai Masjien Trilogy, have seen him win the Elle New Talent award for two years running. The final installation in the trilogy, entitled Miss Congo, was included in an exhibition at the Michael Stevenson gallery in Cape Town, in his show with the suggestive name she is dancing for the rain with her hand in the toaster. The documentation, filmed in Kinshasa, sees Ruga in various attitudes, including lying on a rubbish heap, gloriously dressed in gold.
For Ruga, who also runs clothing label Just Nje/Amper Couture, the Africa is in Fashion initiative is a way to create a ‘broader economic market for African designersâ€. This, says Ruga, is an activity that Africa has to be involved in ‘for ideas on beauty to reach a collectiveâ€.
Ruga will be taking his new work, ampercouture: comme smegma, comme cellulite, a further interrogation of the female body as it exists in an urban setting, to Niger.
