[New post] South Africa’s Thebe Magugu to present first ever international runway as part of London’s V&A Fashion in Motion series
naw posted: " Rising star, Thebe Magugu will be the featured designer at the heralded Victoria & Albert (V&A) museum's Fashion in Motion series, at which he will present highlights from his collection 'Discard Theory' Thebe's four free runways, which wi" The New African Woman
Rising star, Thebe Magugu will be the featured designer at the heralded Victoria & Albert (V&A) museum's Fashion in Motion series, at which he will present highlights from his collection 'Discard Theory'
Thebe's four free runways, which will take place in the V&A Raphael Court on the 7 October, will be his first catwalk shows outside his country, South Africa.
The Johannesburg-based designer works within luxury ready-to-wear collections, womenswear and accessories, and draws inspiration from his South African heritage. Thebe's designs interweave African motifs and craft to create vibrant and celebratory looks that explore the history, culture, and politics of the continent. Infused in his work are themes of storytelling, education, family and ancestry.
To create the looks in this Fashion in Motion show, Thebe visited Dunuza - a well-known site for second-hand clothes discarded by Europe and America - to examine and gather materials which he reinterpreted into a collection. The name Dunuza means 'bend over and describes the act of reaching and searching through the clothes.
His work combines traditional African silhouettes with western styles and graphics to explore the implication these second-hand clothes have on the continent's identity politics. Describing the collection as 'trickle-up fashion', he seeks to invert the theory of 'trickle-down' luxury, which argues that fashion is a hierarchal and class-based industry.
"For this collection I thought about national identity politics, and how western influence has penetrated indigenous dress. Often times, I see a woman in downtown Johannesburg wearing a shweshwe wrap skirt - a fabric often worn for traditional ceremonies - but paired with a Vodaphone or Manchester United tee. I found that Dunuza acts as a nexus between local and global, throwing everything into a melting pot that produces a post-modern interpretation of what African fashion is, and I'm delighted that I can bring these looks to the V&A for Fashion in Motion this October," Thebe explains
Thebe launched his eponymous label in Johannesburg in 2016, shortly after graduating from the London International School of Fashion. He was the first African designer to receive the LVMH Prize for emerging talent in 2019 and the winner of the International Fashion Showcase. Since then, Thebe has produced several major solo collections rooted in the idea of education, with collections named after university subjects.
Past collections include Geology, Africa Studies, Gender Studies, and Alchemy. Most recently he has collaborated with Adidas on the AW22 sportswear collection Finding Beauty.
This Fashion in Motion takes place during the V&A's landmark exhibition Africa Fashion, which celebrates the unstoppable global impact of contemporary African fashions and displays a key look from Thebe's Autumn/Winter 2021 collection, Alchemy.
"We are thrilled to have the opportunity to showcase Thebe's work as part of Fashion in Motion. His collections while beautiful to behold also convey important stories. Thebe deftly manages to both celebrate the possibilities and joy of fashion whilst also causing us, as viewers and consumers to reflect and question how we can all be better when it comes to our own engagement with fashion and the politics that surround it," says Oriole Cullen, V&A Senior Curator Exhibitions.
This Fashion in Motion takes place during the V&A's landmark exhibition Africa Fashion, which celebrates the unstoppable global impact of contemporary African fashion and displays a key look from Magugu's Autumn/Winter 2021 collection, Alchemy. Africa Fashion showcases over 250 objects, spanning the iconic mid-20th century to contemporary creatives through photographs, textiles, music and the visual arts. The exhibition runs until 16 April 2023.
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