Convincing myself and my family that I made the right decision by pursuing fashion. My mother was very sceptical about fashion, it felt like a very frivolous choice to her. My mother is from a generation where they only had two choices, either to be teachers or nurses; and she chose teaching. So a ‘practical’ career path was more appealing to her, but I reassured her of the changing world and the opportunities it had to offer. After proving my point for months, she gave in. But that’s what I love most about the women in my family: they are strong, decisive and fashionable, which is a deadly combination.

The judges were split; some thought my brand was too ambitious and that my aesthetic didn’t really have a market, and the other half enjoyed the fresh perspective. I think the uncertainty concluded the newness of the brand and it made it a necessary one to include in the conversation.

At that time, I was going through a bit of uncertainty in my personal and professional life, and I kept wanting to undo quite a few decisions I had made. Each time I’d ‘undo’ an idea in my head, I’d arrive at the same point I had started. That permeated into the collection, and I wanted to create a rigid collection desperate to change into something else but instead stayed stagnant.

Depth; I’m a storyteller. I love telling stories with visuals, and I love that each format can be interpreted differently. A flower belt on the runway is fabulous; a flower belt in a video lookbook is thought-provoking; a flower belt on a street vendor… The sky is the limit.

There isn’t a strict format. Sometimes it’s shown together, sometimes it works separately on digital platforms. It depends.

Alkebulan is similar to Xingelengele as they both speak to the idea of undoing. In Alkebulan, we imagine a land free of colonisation. We dwell in that fantasy deeper and embrace our heritage and navigate this new unfamiliar land, clean of our ancestors’ blood and pain. I think for us telling stories about our heritage through our work isn’t a choice, it’s a necessity. Without me telling my story, the truth will never be known.

I think the problem is possibly how the world receives African fashion. The most gag-worthy pieces, I’ve seen on this soil.

I don’t. It just boils down to which model looks good in what.

The cleanliness of our silhouettes, our story and our inspiration.

My late great-grandmother, Nwa’Mulamula, a woman I never met but heard great stories about. For Alkebulan, we reimagined the Tinguvu skirt, also known as the Xibelani skirt – a native skirt worn by the Tsonga women for an indigenous dance called the Xibelani, an act in which we express enormous pride in our culture. The hip-accentuating piece is carefully and skillfully knotted on a wool braided rope to create a two-tier fringe masterpiece – a skill that is passed down from generation to generation. Nwa’Mulamula taught Martha (my grandmother), who then passed down the knowledge to Daisy (my mother), who then passed it down to me.

I do it to place my work in environments familiar to me and many who are like me. In that placement, I try to illustrate queerness as a reminder that it has always existed in those spaces.

Both of their teams asked for the pieces months before; I even forgot about it! By the time they wore the pieces, I was so pleased and excited because it was such a beautiful affirming moment for myself and the brand.

Correct. We launched our online store during lockdown. In South Africa, we have seen different stages of lockdown that have negatively affected every business. We decided we couldn’t afford to be in a ‘wait and see’ mode. First, we needed to change our mindset and reimagine our baseline requirements, and then turn our attention to taking our customer experience to the next level.

At first, yes, but now we’ve identified more opportunity. I think it is safe to say that every business had anticipated this year to be a great year for opportunities. A year full of strategy and execution to better previous years. The pandemic, however, slowed down some of our operations adhering to the lockdown regulations and the uncertainty of its longevity.
Now, having adjusted to our new normal, we have shifted our business outlook. We have extended the Azania range and have added new pieces – all available on our newly developed online store. Through social listening, ethnography and marketing insights, we have reimagined our baseline requirements as a brand.

We are going global!