SUITS OF AMOUR
Menswear designer is courting customers who love to look snazzy and cool. By Shanthini Naidoo
GENTLEMEN may be facing extinction, but menswear designer Zano Sithetho is determined to save the species. And he’s starting with himself. He speaks softly, carefully, with consideration — not your typical 28-year-old. He moves with grace in a smart jacket and ethnic-printed, Chinese-collared shirt, Egyptian cotton.
The name of Sithetho’s menswear label, Skorzch, is about scotch and scorching heat. It sounds almost too funky for this self-taught “tailor”, who cares a great deal about stitching, clean lines and craftsmanship.
At two years old, the label is young but has already scored awards for up-and-coming talent. His work is not as outrageous as some of the other intermediate-level designers participating in Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Joburg this weekend under a new category, Next Generation.
Many of the young designers’ fashions are awkward: carpet fabric mixed with bling, odd hemlines, space-age outfits that may never be worn in public.
Sithetho says his collection “may well be for fashion week, but it is not couture. That is the core essence of the brand. It is not meant to look like a fashion show but a group of gentlemen who got up and took a walk. People can shop off the catwalk and wear the suits the way they are. No extras. Simple. Subtle.”
The son of a pastor from the small Eastern Cape town of Stutterheim, he got his first “double-breasted, navy two-piece” at age 13, which he wore to church.
“I always wanted to do something really awesome with design. I love looking snazzy and cool. Suits suit the lifestyle of a gentleman. But it is also about etiquette. Behaviour. Humility. Humanity. Yes, gentlemen need all that. And a suit.”
Big dreams and a move to Joburg saw Sithetho and two friends making funky T-shirts to sell at flea-markets. They did well, but the team did not want to move forward. “We were making money. We fell in love with the idea of dressing GQ style. But we fell out when I wanted to move on. I am self-taught. I would go to downtown Jozi, to the jumble-sale markets called The Piles. The second-hand clothing was from London, Italy, really good suiting.
“I would go home, take the clothes apart and look at how it was all put together. I would sit and watch tailors, steal their methods and ways,” he says, caressing a tartan fabric.
We are at Benjamin Woollens, the famed fabric merchants. “I love wool. This is my favourite place,” he says.
Now the team of three, “a tailor, a cutter and a combo of the two” make clean-cut suits from a little outfit in Kempton Park.
They are busy with a stream of private clients, including some celebrities, such as Sithetho’s muse, actor Thapelo Mokoena. “A consummate gentleman: warm, kind and tall. Suits look better if you are tall.” The eight-piece collection for Fashion Week was inspired by ’50s Sophiatown, when men wore suits to the taverns. “I am telling an African story through an African eye. It is vintage with a touch of modernity. Taking the old days as a blueprint but adding young, fresh chic with updated fabrics. Tartan was highly used in that era but the fabrics today are more polished, comfortable. “It is about appreciating art and a well-tailored suit. Not about being fashion forward, more about everyday elegance”.