HOT LUNCH | Prints built on a foundation of stone

On Tuesday last week I spent the afternoon in a state of judgment.

I know. It’s a problem. But in this instance I was asked to exercise mine as a judge for the 2026 edition for the South African Style Awards (I am sure my fellow judge, Craig Jacobs, has much to say in the adjacent column).

I took the wonderful endless summer-themed lunch at Bellagio in Illovo as an opportunity to interview last year’s winner in the category of most stylish designer, Mzukisi Mbane, who was also very judgy.

It’s his turn now. He is wearing Imprint (his label). The cut is bold and daring but it’s the print that tells a powerful story. This is why we voted for him last year — he is the embodiment of style. At least in the way I understand the term: someone who clearly marches to their own drum, looks spectacular while doing it and has a story to tell.

Born and raised by a single mother in Khayelitsha, the youngest of four siblings, he explains he was a creative kid but got very serious at school and studied accounting at the University of the Western Cape. He always had a flair for fashion.

“I got scouted at Fashion Week. Because one thing about me, I’ve always been expressive, even as an accounting student. So the stuff I was making at home I would wear. I would get teased by my lecturers.”

His mother taught him how to sew and supported him unstintingly when he decided to pursue fashion as a career after he graduated.

“I still don’t understand what she was thinking, because I remember waking up one day and just asking her to show me how to operate the sewing machine. You know that feeling when you do something that feels so natural. It immediately felt like I was doing something I was meant to do. And she didn’t question it. She was very supportive. I really appreciate that.

I remember waking up one day and just asking her to show me how to operate the sewing machine. You know that feeling when you do something that feels so natural. It immediately felt like I was doing something I was meant to do

“And then I started exploring opportunities. I remember Cape Town Fashion Week looking for interns. I don’t know how I got into that group, because my group was very academic. I remember the first show I watched was a Leigh Schubert show. I remember sitting there was like, I want to be doing this. I see myself doing that.”

From his first break at the menswear week in 2015 where he showcased his first collection, to showing at the most recent Beijing Fashion Week, he has stayed true to his vision of reimagining heritage in a modern voice.

“I have always wanted to create something that was about us, I have always called the brand a pan-African brand. But also I wanted it to be reflective of what ‘us’ is right now. I didn’t want to do your traditional idea of what African prints are. I wanted to do African print that anyone, regardless of where you come from in Africa, regardless of your race, you can find yourself within this print.

“That’s the basic manifesto of the brand, just to create something that is us while also pushing the idea of African prints that are really connected to African stories created by African people.

“One thing I found when I started the brand is that most of what is considered to be African prints, the commercial prints, were not really African. So it was just finding out the history around them, how they were brought into Africa, how African identities were stripped and then reproduced and it wasn’t really our narrative being sold to us.”

I ask about the story behind the print he is wearing. “This one is from the ‘Africa is not a trend’ series. I wanted to do something that was within the brand narrative, but also challenged the conversations around what Africa really is. And the print was a point of conversation. Africa, it’s us. It’s our stories. It’s our lived experience.“

The interesting part is how he translates this idea into a visual message. “So this print was inspired by stones. You see what happens when you take a stone and dip it in colour, and the print gets formed. It’s also an aerial view of nature and really just looking at stones, the fact that they are ancient and elemental. Also there’s this Xhosa proverb that says ‘trust a stone more than you trust a person’. Our stories are retained in stone.“

Design is a powerful medium to tell our stories in a visceral way, but trusting in his own vision has been a process. He has just celebrated the 10-year anniversary of the brand. He tells me his “pinch me” moment, which doubled as validation that the clothes were powerful in their own right, came when he left the collection with a PR agency in New York.

“A week later I got a call that Billy Porter is wearing the Imprint suit —that was huge, that was crazy.”