Some of the most important events in our lives require us to put our best foot forward. To dress up, whatever that looks like. However, this can also add another layer of stress and uncertainty because most mainstream fashion houses do not cater for a certain body. The conversation has been going on for many years.
For Bonolo Mashilo, the founder of B Mashilo Designs, fashion is about more than fabric, stitching and the finished garment. It is about how a woman sees herself when she looks in the mirror, how she carries herself when she walks into a room and, perhaps most importantly, whether she feels that the clothes she is wearing were made with her in mind.
Ten years after starting her business in her parents’ garage, Mashilo has built a fashion brand that has grown alongside the women who wear it. What began with one seamstress and a focus on matric dance and bridal dresses has evolved into a fashion house offering ready-towear collections, custom-made garments, bridal consultations, dress rentals, styling services and walk-in shopping.
The journey has not been without its difficulties. There have been periods of uncertainty, business setbacks, a pandemic and personal loss. Yet, each chapter has contributed to the woman and designer she is today. “I don't glamourise entrepreneurship. I love what I do but it's been one of the most difficult journeys with the highest of highs and the lowest of lows,” she says.
As a child, Mashilo helped her aunt, who was a seamstress, make clothes. The needles, threads, material and care for structure and making were what drew her to fashion.
Her mother made sure that she dressed up to the nines every time they stepped out, cementing her love for fashion.
“I then went on to study fashion design at the Tshwane University of Technology. I graduated and I worked a year in retail. I worked for the head office of Edgars and I trained there to be a buyer. So that's the corporate side of fashion.”
Mashilo says that although she knew that corporate was not where she would remain, she wanted to understand how a business operated, knowledge she knew would become important when she eventually ventured out on her own.
“I stayed for a year, then I resigned and started B Mashilo Designs from the garage. And that's where the story started. I started with just one employee and we were making matric dance dresses and bridal dresses, not so much because I didn't really have the capacity,” she says.
The business scaled, meaning she had to find a much bigger space, which she did. However, Covid arrived, forcing her to return home and reconsider everything she had worked towards.
For a moment, things seemed bleak and giving up seemed like a possibility.
Instead, Mashilo found another way to reach her customers — online. “I opened an online store because the customers couldn't come to me, so I decided to go to them. I started selling ready-to-wear clothing which helped sustain the business because there weren't as many weddings at the time. As soon as some of the regulations for Covid were lifted, I decided I was going to get an office space again.”
The business continued to evolve. Universities approached her to accommodate fashion students completing their work-integrated learning programmes. This presented Mashilo with an opportunity to do something she had become passionate about: skills transfer.
“The interns really helped me figure out what it is that I wanted to do.”
That fresh perspective and new ideas have helped her remain relevant and open to new ideas.
In addition to that, Mashilo also reads and researches extensively about fashion, which has led her to understand the extent of the problem she wanted to address when she entered the creative industry.
She noticed that many black women struggled to find clothes that fitted their bodies properly. Rather than accepting this as a problem with women's bodies, she began questioning the measurements and sizing systems used by the industry. “I realised that we're being told that the dresses don't fit us. But what's happening is the sizing chart was never made for the South African women,” she says.
She began experimenting with her own sizing chart, using measurements taken from women in her family as a starting point. The intention was to create garments that considered the proportions of everyday South African women rather than forcing them into standardised measurements that did not necessarily reflect their bodies.
This meant she did not need to compromise on design, elegance or creativity. She wanted women to have access to beautiful, figure-conscious garments without having to make multiple alterations just to achieve a comfortable fit.
Some of her strongest inspiration, however, comes through dreams.
“I dream about my designs,” she says.
She describes waking up with ideas, seeing a particular silhouette in her sleep or finding inspiration in something as ordinary as a tree she walks past. These moments eventually become part of the collections, each of which carries a name and a story.
One of the collections, Pelo ya Phiri, was named in honour of her late father. After his death, Mashilo channelled her grief into her work, creating a collection characterised by darker colours and beautiful designs. The loss also influenced her decision to develop the brand's funeral wear offering, challenging the idea that dressing for bereavement must mean abandoning personal style.
“I wanted to change the narrative that you don't really have to look like what you're going through. You can go all out and send your loved ones off in the most stylish way because that represents who you are.”
Another collection, Leeto la Ditoro, translates to the journey of dreams and reflects the designs she repeatedly encountered in her dreams.
“It sounds insane but that's literally how my designs come about.
“And then even the dresses are named after the meaning behind it. Our best-seller is Morero because Morero is what you were called to do. It's in one of the most beautiful sage green colours ever.”
It represents a period when Mashilo was reflecting on how far she had travelled and the importance of living in alignment with her purpose.
“When I designed that, I was relaxed, thinking about how far I've come and how I am living my purpose and my calling. I've got people that walk into my life, that bring change. And I name dresses after them.”
Looking back on the past decade, Mashilo says the business has taught her to take risks, recover from disappointment and recognise that different seasons of life have something to teach us.
“You either choose defeat or you refuse to be taken down,” she says.
The death of her father, in particular, changed her relationship with fear. Having experienced profound grief, she says, the challenges of business no longer intimidate her in the same way.
As B Mashilo enters its second decade, Mashilo is thinking about what the brand could become long after she is no longer at the helm. She wants to diversify into homeware, furniture and household items.
Ultimately, she wants to build a household name, one that people will recognise through its work even if they do not know the woman who founded it.
“I want B Mashilo to outlive me,” she says. “A lot of designers stay relevant in their time and then phase out. But I'm building a legacy. I want something that's going to live way past me.”
For her, representation is an important part of that legacy. Growing up, she struggled to find women who looked like her represented in the fashion she admired. Too often, the women presented as aspirational were smaller and pre-dominantly white.
She wants young black women to see her work and recognise the possibilities available to them, not only in what they can wear but also in what they can become.
“Your dreams are valid and you are allowed to dream out of what you thought you could do. Like, far beyond that. And there's so much to explore.”