Rich Mnisi x Foschini: when fashion is joy

Trust local fashion star Rich Mnisi to turn a 100th birthday into a fashion moment — instead of what it could have been, a museum piece. Last week, inside the concrete cool of the Zeitz MOCAA art museum in Cape Town, Foschini celebrated its centenary with less nostalgia and more vibrancy, inviting Mnisi to remix a century of South African style for women who’ve lived it, worn it and owned it.

Guests drifted through a gallery of memory — satin suits, archival campaigns, echoes of generations who dressed for weddings, funerals, and payday Fridays — before the lights dimmed and Mnisi’s models took to the podium. He created five ready-to-wear pieces for Foschini, and 14 couture creations that danced between art and auction, inspired by his mother’s love of fashion and occasion.

With Lamiez Holworthy on decks and Connie Ferguson as muse, it felt like a full-circle moment — a conversation between past and future, stitched by one of our brightest fashion stars. The night raised funds for Move Africa, tackling period poverty.

Rich Mnisi, storyteller in silk, talked to Andrea Nagel about heritage, womanhood and designing the next chapter.

Ten years of RICH MNISI meets one hundred years of Foschini. When you sat down to imagine this collaboration, what did you want that dialogue across generations — between legacy and innovation — to sound like?

I wanted it to feel like a conversation across time where legacy meets experimentation and tradition meets imagination. Foschini represents a century of dressing South African women with care and consistency, while RICH MNISI represents a decade of reimagining identity through bold, expressive design. Together, it became a dialogue between heritage and possibility, an exploration of what happens when craftsmanship and culture evolve hand in hand.

You spoke about your mother and grandmother as your earliest style references — women who dressed with intention and pride. When you think of them now, in the context of this campaign that honours South African woman, what details of their elegance guides your creative eye?

They both embodied elegance in an intentional way. They never dressed just to impress, they dressed to express. My mother had a ritual of dressing up for the simplest errands because presentation was a form of self-respect. My grandmother’s church outfits were statements of dignity and pride. When I design, I chase the feeling of clothing as memory, and beauty as something deeply spiritual. The way they carried themselves shapes how I think about proportion, grace and emotional connection in my work.

You said the first spark for the Foschini capsule came from nostalgia — from memories of Sophiatown and pleated blouses. What does nostalgia mean to you as a designer who’s pushing fashion forward?

Nostalgia is a compass that helps me remember who we are as we move into new worlds. The Foschini capsule started with the spirit of memory — Sophiatown’s rhythm, pleated blouses, community, music, joy. But nostalgia only matters when it’s active, when it informs new shapes and new ways of belonging. The trick is not to recreate the past but to reinterpret its energy.

Collaboration, you’ve said, begins with humility — walking into the room assuming you don’t know everything. What did you learn from working with Foschini? How did that conversation challenge or expand your design philosophy?

Collaboration humbles you. Working with Foschini reminded me of the power of scale and reach, of how design lives past the runway in the everyday. I learned how to translate emotion into accessibility and how to merge storytelling with systems that have touched millions. It challenged me to refine my vision without losing its soul. That balance between artistic purity and real-world wearability was a beautiful lesson.

The charity auction with Strauss & Co channels fashion into social impact, specifically supporting Move Africa’s fight against period poverty. What made that cause important to you?

Fashion carries a responsibility not just to adorn the body but to serve humanity. Supporting Move Africa’s mission to end period poverty was personal - I grew up surrounded by women who made sacrifices to show up in the world with confidence. Access to dignity should never be a luxury. Partnering with Strauss & Co allowed us to merge art, fashion and social action to show that beauty can be a vehicle for change.

You’ve dressed icons from Beyoncé to Naomi Campbell, but you’ve also said it’s the everyday person wearing your designs that moves you most. How do you balance that duality — between global glamour and the intimacy of local storytelling?

Whether it’s Beyoncé or someone walking through Joburg in a RICH MNISI piece, it’s the same heartbeat — a celebration of identity. Fashion should feel both extraordinary and deeply personal. Dressing icons is surreal, but seeing someone on the street make a piece their own is where the magic is. That’s where fashion becomes culture.

There’s a powerful thread in this collection about garments that outlive their time — that get passed from one generation to the next. What’s one piece from your own archives that you hope someone will inherit one day — and what story would it tell?

There’s a denim coat from an early collection I hold close. It was hand-finished by a small team who believed in my vision when it was just a dream. It carries every sleepless night, every risk, every breakthrough. I imagine someone inheriting it years from now – not for its fabric but for its story.

Please tell the story of the three ‘M’s

My mom lives by the three M’s — Mokiteng, Manyalong and Mafung. She always has an event to buy clothes for. Growing up every weekend was an occasion — weddings, church, markets, celebrations. She never needed a reason to look her best. That ritual of preparation and choosing who you want to be through what you wear shaped me. It’s where I learned that fashion isn’t frivolous, it’s joy in motion.

At this 10-year milestone, what does success look like to you?

Ten years of success feels quieter, more grounded. It’s not about global recognition or influence anymore, it’s about alignment – creating work that feels honest and sustainable, nurturing the people around me and leaving behind a creative language that will inspire others after I’m gone. Success to me now looks like peace, knowing that I’ve stayed true to the story even as it evolves.

Possible sidebar:

5 Runway Essentials

1. The Signature Dress: Modern silhouettes meet RICH MNISI’s most iconic prints in a dress that moves fluidly between day and evening. Cut to celebrate the body rather than constrain it, this is accessible luxury at its most articulate – neither apologetic about its price nor compromising on its pedigree.

2. The Tailored Blazer: Part of a separates collection designed for mixing, this blazer brings Mnisi’s geometric precision into everyday dressing. Sharp lines, considered proportions, and that distinctive RICH MNISI handwriting translated into something you’ll actually wear on a Tuesday morning.

3. The Statement Skirt: Pleating and bold summer prints combine in a piece that refuses to be background. This is the collection’s most unapologetic moment – designed for women who understand that accessible doesn’t mean invisible.

4. The Refined Trousers: Tailoring that acknowledges real life: these aren’t archival pieces destined for careful preservation, but trousers built to move through a full day without losing their edge. Mnisi’s attention to cut meeting Foschini’s understanding of practical elegance.

5. The Petal Print Sandals: Perhaps the collection’s most democratic gesture - casual footwear emblazoned with RICH MNISI’s petal print, making his signature motif walkable, wearable, and refreshingly uncomplicated. Luxury, it seems, needn’t always announce itself loudly.

* The Foschini x RICH MNISI Capsule Collection is available in select stores nationwide and online at Bash.com.