Self-taught fashion designer shines
Mahlakwane named his firm after his dad
Gert-johan Coetzee’s protégé Ronny Mahlakwane continues to make his mark in the fashion industry as his fashion house gets introduced to international spaces.
The Lawrenson Junior founder is a self-taught fashion designer from the small village of Moroke in Limpopo, who happened to fall into the hands of the famed Coetzee to learn the manufacturing and other processes involved in making clothing items.
He has so far dressed Moozlie, Terry Pheto, Pearl Thusi and Nozi Langa, among many other celebrities.
“It’s less than five years since I started my own fashion house, and it has been a roller-coaster ride given the Covid-19 challenges, but I appreciate that my designs are now in demand by celebrities.”
The 28-year-old said he had always been a fashion enthusiast but his father Lawrence urged him to study information technology to secure his future for the fourth industrial revolution. He did not understand the need to spend three years studying fashion.
While completing his last year of the course, he accompanied his sister to fetch her Durban July dress from Coetzee, and says he knew he belonged in that space. So, he asked for six months to prove himself in fashion even though he had no qualifications, but made it as an intern for the famed fashion designer.
“I had to complete my studies for my dad’s sake, so I had to study part-time. When he realised that I was flourishing in the fashion space, he became very supportive. This support assured me that I could and would make it. “I then named my fashion house after him, in his honour, and [kept] believing in my own dreams. I understood why I had to study IT for him, and when the time was right, he gave me the opportunity to express myself. I had to do it right because I was doing it for me this time,” he said.
Starting the business without design education, apart from Coetzee’s teachings, was not an easy ride. Mahlakwane says he sold some of his designs for about R1 800 when he began, but with recognition and a better understanding of the industry, he sold a wedding gown, which took seven months of beading work, for R80000.
Ronny, who was born in 1994, and a manufacturing plant in Marshaltown.
“I am proud of myself for coming this far because there was a point I didn’t really understand the commercial side of fashion, but here we are now, growing and flourishing, even without the help of those we thought we could lean on.”
Ronny says he was not fighting with his former mentor but the relationship they once shared has faded. He believes this was caused by his need to be independent and start his own business.
“My first celebrity client was Nozi Langa after I opened my fashion house four years ago, and now celebrities keep coming in. Moozlie wore my twopiece to the BET Awards in LA [Los Angeles].
“I thank this beautiful country for its heart-warming support,” he said.