THEBE MAGUGU

Local fashion designer Thebe Magugu not only won the International Fashion Showcase at 2019’s London Fashion Week, he also made history last year when he became the first African designer to win the prestigious Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy LVMH Prize, a major fashion award and probably the most coveted prize for young designers.

After what has been a whirlwind since receiving the award, Magugu says the prize has made him dream bigger. “As you leave high school and go into college and then go into some sort of work thing or work for yourself, along the way you start becoming realistic. You start being more objective than dreamy. So this has reset all that.”

Magugu, who was born in Kimberley, says the win has afforded him massive access to the global fashion industry. “They told me that all their books are open for the year and whoever I need in the industry they can connect me to. It’s made me more serious about what I do: building this global brand that has its roots all over the world but is based in South Africa.”

This week he received a special presentation slot at Paris Fashion week where he waved SA’s flag high and proud. We asked him what’s currently on his radar.

Art

Local art is blowing my mind. Bronwyn Katz, who’s also from Kimberley, is a close friend. It’s fascinating how she takes mattresses and deconstructs them into these beautiful sculptures that have so much meaning.

Podcast

Oprah’s Soul Sessions are incredible. I listen to them on Sundays. One is about how destructive the ego can be and how it can mess with your relationships. It’s important to listen to things that ground you and give you another perspective. Business of Fashion always have great podcasts that give insight and analysis into what’s happening.

Book

I’ve read such incredible things. A book called Observatory Mansions by Edward Carey is one of my favourites. It’s a very interesting story about a group of misfits who live in a building. They’ve all been affected by some sort of trauma. The book looks at the way they handle and express their issues. It’s a bizarre, interesting account of how people deal with t trauma. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is another one I’ll never forget. It’s concerned with occurrences around the time of Nazi Germany. The last book I read was The Black

Sash. It’s also a book that’s important to me because it was the premise of my collection. I liked how these women put themselves in danger to fight for people of colour.

Film

Black Swan is my favourite movie of all time. That pursuit of perfection is something that I’m very prone to, even though I know how impossible it is. I love the message that the pursuit of perfectionism will kill you. It also reminds me that I’m not perfect, and that’s OK.