Pretoria News

Designer Magugu is going places

THOBILE MAZIBUKO thobile.mazibuko@inl.co.za Vuitton Marc Jacobs & Louis

DESPITE winning the LVMH (Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton) Prize and having his designs displayed at the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Thebe Magugu remains admirably humble.

I first met him at a fashion show a few years back. We didn’t talk much as fashion shows are usually manic affairs and designers can barely spare time to socialise, because they have to make sure everything goes well backstage.

Fast forward to May 2021: I met the Kimberly-born designer in Durban, where we both attended the Adidas #ImpossibleIsNothing event. As one of the campaign ambassadors, Magugu was patiently waiting for us at the skatepark at North Beach.

He looked so cool and calm in green and white. He’d donned green front slit pants and a Sisterhood jersey from his Counter Intelligence Spring/Summer 21 collection. His outfit was paired with green and white Adidas Stan Smith sneakers.

He introduced himself as a designer from Kimberly. However, Siv Ngesi, the MC of the event, felt he underplayed his strides in the industry and mentioned that Magugu was an award-winning designer and the one and the only African to win the LVMH Prize.

After the formalities of the event ended, we headed to California Dreaming restaurant for lunch. I was excited to find I was seated at the same table as the unassuming designer and it gave me time to have that overdue one-on-one.

I asked him what drew him to fashion designing and was interested to learn that, aside from being inspired by Marc Jacobs and Louis Vuitton, it was David Tlale who encouraged him to follow his dream.

“I didn’t have a big aha moment. It was a series of events that shifted me to go into fashion. The most significant is my family getting DStv for the first time and the first channel being FTV, where they broadcast the

TV movie. I was like ‘what is this beautiful universe?’,” he said.

Magugu added that his mother also had a huge influence on his fashion career.

“Yes, fashion is about the flash and the fabulousness, but I grew up watching designers who used fashion to their advantage by telling stories.

“My mother built charisma in me. She used fashion to make herself look dazzling.”

Shy as he is, Magugu also has a naughty side.

“I missed one of the exams in Grade 12, and I got a bus to Joburg to watch David Tlale’s show on the bridge. It was so glamorous seeing the industry altogether. I take my hat off to Tlale in many ways for introducing that idea of worldbuilding. That was my first ever physical show, and it was worth it because I got to see the people who contribute to our industry.

“The stylists, photographers, models, everyone working together, and as someone from a small township of Ipopeng in Kimberly, it was so fulfilling seeing these worlds collide in that sense,” he laughed.

After being mesmerised by what he saw at Tlale’s show in 2012, Magugu moved to Joburg in 2013 to pursue his dream. It was after he got rejected at St Martin’s, where he wanted to study further, that things started to shape up.

The rejection proved to be a blessing in disguise as it pushed him to work even harder to make his mark in the fashion industry.

In 2015, he launched his brand, Thebe Magugu. But he didn’t believe he was much of a good designer until he won the LVMH Prize in 2019. Even entering the competition was a struggle, but his mother and a few friends managed to convince him, and when he finally entered, he still didn’t think he would win.

“It broke a toxic self-belief that I couldn’t operate in those spaces, I couldn’t sit in those tables,” said the three-times Lisof (Stadio School of Fashion) graduate.

Magugu is living proof that “impossible is nothing”. And with that, he encourages the youth to push boundaries.

“Stick to the idea of believing in whatever you’re proposing. Persevering, even though the world doesn’t see it.

“I’ve been working in fashion since 2015, and I didn’t feel seen in any capacity, but that didn’t stop me producing work season after season because I knew this was universe building, and I knew there was an end goal that I was veering towards.”

In June this year, he will be dropping more projects, but his main goal is to localise his brand.

“I want to tie it back to South Africa.”

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2021-05-10T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-05-10T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://pretorianews.pressreader.com/article/281762747133170

African News Agency