The South African talent and winner of the LVMH Prize is leading the global vanguard of designers who are bravely rejecting the norm in favor of meaningful new narratives that get people thinking.


PUBLISHED: FEBRUARY 23 2022

Thebe Magugu’s collections contain multitudes. In them, you’ll find utilitarian shirtdresses and layered handkerchief hems (traces of the uniforms prominently featured in his upbringing) and an exceptional use of texture, color, and print. They’re the sort of clothes that compel you to stop a stranger on the street and ask them where they got them.

Inspired by fashion’s greats—from ‘80s and ‘90s icons like Martin Margiela and Rei Kawakubo to today’s industry heavyweights, like the late Virgil Abloh—the South African talent leads the vanguard of young designers around the globe who are blazing audacious, socially disruptive trails. Magugu’s pieces make powerful statements about his home country while also being undeniably chic—and because chic clothing is a universal language, so too is his reach.
 
Underpinning his work is a fascination with—and deep reverence for—women. Thebe Magugu (pronounced “Teh-Beh”) was raised by his mother, aunt, and grandmother in Ipopeng, a suburb of Kimberley, the capital city of South Africa’s North Cape. Growing up, watching each woman cultivate a distinct sense of style nurtured his creative imagination and still informs his work today. For instance, his propensity for uniforms—for “clothes that, though beautiful, [also] have functionality that aids in women’s day to day”—is a direct reflection of the women who raised him. “My grandmother had a uniform as a medical nurse and as a member of the church,” he remembers. “My mother had one as well, preferring to wear coordinated sets for work.”

After high school, Magugu moved to Johannesburg to study fashion, officially launching his namesake label in 2016. Abundantly aware of fashion's power to effect change, he pours his native South Africa into everything he creates—whether his intention is to critique, comment, pay tribute, or convey a sense of nostalgia.

Oftentimes this translates to stunning sartorial examinations of South Africa’s political unrest or other current social concerns—always with a laser focus on the country’s most oppressed citizens, particularly women. Take his Spring ‘21 collection, which is inspired by the women who worked as undercover spies during Apartheid and features a polka-dot print that is, upon closer inspection, actually the fingerprints of one of the former spies. Or Spring ‘22—currently available on Moda—which uses prints taken from his Basotho heritage, decontextualized for a global audience alongside incredibly personal abstracted renditions of family photos. These stories are “hidden gems,” as he once put it, revealing what “might otherwise run the risk of being forgotten.”

Magugu’s ability to subtly weave radical commentaries into elegant, wearable clothing has earned him prestigious praise, from the LVMH Prize in 2019 to the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which purchased one of his designs for their archive. 

Meet him in his own words here.