With so much to be excited about when it comes to South Africa’s creative output over the past year, we wanted to keep a spotlight on our favourite fashion brands. A collection of Fashion Week favourites and subversive newcomers makes up this collection of the most interesting and coveted young brands in the country right now.
Words: Tshiamo Seape
Art wear is a concept probably few are familiar with, nonetheless this distinction has not stopped a commitment by designer Robyn Keyser to producing an ethical, inclusive and transparent fashion line; a commitment that is woven into the ethos of Artclub & Friends. The line is turning traditional fashion structures on their head and producing elevated garments that have been seen on the backs of stars like Darkie Fiction, featured in Africa Is Now and Acclaim Magazine and debuted on the runway at SA Fashion Week earlier this year. Artclub & Friends is clearly enjoying its moment in the sun.
Distinguishing themselves from their street wear peers, Cape Town’s Good Good Good take an adventurous approach to leisure wear. Bold prints and luscious fabrics have come to define the brands recent collections and are a clear departure from their earlier pieces. A series of unexpected but no less inspired collaborations have made Good Good Good something of a surprisingly novel player in the street wear landscape. As the brand continues to find its footing, expect a lot more of the unexpected in the near future.
Sash, in its relatively short history, has garnered an impressive fanbase including DJ Speedsta and Siya Beyile. Opting for statement pieces from the very beginning, SASH stays in this creative lane with it’s latest project, Daily SASH. Through appropriating the the iconic (or infamous) Daily Sun iconography, SASH has produced a collection of t-shirts displaying fictional headlines designed in the style of the countries most popular daily paper. Not content to just make the headlines the brands new collection has made them their own. SASH is the brainchild of former fashion student Sakhile Cebekhulu, whose subversive creative expression is one we have all the time in the world for.
