WEARING THE CLAN ON HIS SLEEVE
Oliver Roberts falls under the spell of Laduma Ngxokolo’s heritage knitwear
LADUMA Ngxokolo, whose surname presents considerable white anxiety in the context of the #mispronounceback campaign, describes the attention he’s received for the past five years as “surreal” and “epic”.
We’re at a swish venue in Camps Bay, where a dinner for 30-plus guests is being held in Ngxokolo’s honour, as Chivas Regal announces its partnership with the fashion designer and knitwear whiz. For its 18year-old blend, the whisky giant is releasing limited-edition packaging designed by Ngxokolo. This is more than just a drab PR exercise to promote a whisky brand; it’s significant because the only other fashion designers invited to create packaging for Chivas Regal have been Vivienne Westwood, Alexander McQueen and Ashish N Soni. This, like Ngxokolo himself, is a big deal.
Since he presented his MaXhosa knitwear range at Design Indaba 2011, Ngxokolo has won many local and international awards and has shown his work in Paris, New York, London, Amsterdam, Oslo and Berlin. Last year, he won the Vogue Italia Scouting for Africa prize to exhibit in Milan. The great big weirdness of all this is that Ngxokolo’s colourful and incredible de- signs are essentially inspired by a smallish group of people predominantly based in the Eastern Cape, the eponymous MaXhosa clan.
Ngxokolo’s idea was to create knitwear that would not only be suitable for Xhosa initiates to wear, but that celebrated a Xhosa heritage whose lineage includes giants like Nelson Mandela, Steve Biko, Chris Hani and Govan and Thabo Mbeki.
“The culture is subdivided into more than 200 clans, like the clans of Scotland who create distinctive pat- terns in their tartan,” Ngxokolo says. “I began to think I could come up with a heritage brand based on one standard pattern that could resonate with South African people in the same way Burberry does for the British or Louis Vuitton does for the French. In my case it’s taking the zigzags, chevrons and kite motifs that recur in every clan and simplifying them into modern patterns.”
One possible reason Ngxokolo’s knitwear has garnered the attention it has is that it breaks away from the clichéd notion of “African” design, ie generic animal prints and beadwork. Browsing airport curio stores, Ngxokolo felt the products represented a limited way of looking at SA. It’s pretty much unprecedented to have a range of touristy South African merchandise that is specific to an actual clan.
Ngxokolo attributes his talent for knitwear and love of his heritage to his late mother, Lindelwa. Not only did she instruct him in the craft from an early age, she had an inner fire that burned for a deeper knowledge about culture and ancestry. Ngxokolo says she had a veritable library of anthropology books.
But it was his own initiation process that pushed him to take the gift his mother had given him and make it into something great.
“Before then, the education and idea wasn’t there at all, only my physical skill,” Ngxokolo says. “But like any Xhosa man that went through initiation, I aspired to be the best man I could be. You are given a choice to be good or bad. I chose to be good.”
What followed was a BTech at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, and then that path-changing display in 2011. Ngxokolo plans to have his own stores in fashion capitals around the world. But, again, in recognition of the values his late mother and his initiation instilled in him, Ngxokolo intends to use his influence for good causes.
“We all aspire to be great men. That is what the process pushes us to. As an African designer, I need to take things further than simply having a fashion range and some stores. I would like to establish schools and universities, and museums that preserve some of the ideas that got lost along the way.”
The following day, Laduma Ngxokolo’s MaXhosa-inspired shawl was awarded Design Indaba’s 2016 Most Desirable Object in South Africa. It seems even greater greatness awaits.
Visit www.maxhosa.co.za.