The news this week that South Africa is to be once again represented at Paris Fashion Week continues the exciting rise of Maxhosa Africa.

Maxhosa Africa is a luxury brand that brings South African design into clothing and home goods. Proudly manufactured in South Africa, the products, which feature bold geometrics and colours, are distinctive and draw on local cultural references to celebrate Africa as part of contemporary international design rather than as an additional “exotic” tradition. This approach has been very successful and has allowed the label to expand its manufacturing base, its activities and its ranges, and to appeal to the buying public both inside and outside of its South African home

The origins of this company are fascinating. it began life as a student project from Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (image below) when Laduma Ngxokolo posed the question: could traditional Xhosa aesthetics be translated into modern knitwear for amakrwala, young men who have undergone a coming-of-age rite? Once the initiation has been completed the men acquire new formal clothing and the designer felt that his own experience had not recognised his own Xhosa identity. The initial patterns explored traditional Xhosa beadwork (the image above is an example) as the starting point for pattern and colour in knitwear, a nod to Ngxokolo’s mother who was a knitwear designer and who taught him knitting.

_{Image caption: Ceremonial beadwork for a Xhosa royal woman: headdress (umnqwazi), pendant, breast cover (incebetha), pair of anklets (izitsaba), 1800s, Africa, Southern Africa, South Africa, Southeast Cape Region, Unknown female Xhosa-style maker}