Lukhanyo Mdingi is part of the unmistakable rise of a young generation who are representing the expansive creative energies of the continent of Africa. As a joint winner of the 2021 LVMH Karl Lagerfeld Prize, he brought his collection to Paris this season for its first viewing. At the gallery takeover, models mingled with the audience, wearing his effervescent spectrum of superbly tactile made-in-Africa luxury: generously trailing mixed-media scarves, mohair and felted ponchos in intense pops of yellow, lavender, and pink; and neat-to-the body Merino knitwear mixed with chic hand-woven trouser suits.
“I’m from Cape Town, but I’m originally from the Eastern Cape,” Mdingi explained, by way of introduction. “And I’ve been a designer since we launched in South Africa in 2015. So our labor has been under the radar, and I’m happy about that, because it gave us the chance to put in the foundations to use fashion and entrepreneurship as a vehicle to change what I want to see in the world.”
The attention of buyers—they are all over his collection—and the springboard of the Paris showcase is grist for his greater message. “The reception’s been fantastic,” he exclaimed. “And what’s really been important is not necessarily the clothes, but that people can really understand the provenance of the craft and the human beings behind the making of it.”
A graduate of Cape Peninsula University of Technology for Fashion Design, Mdingi grew up inspired by Gianni Versace and the supermodel era, “as well as watching a daytime soap, The Bold and the Beautiful. I’m a ’90s kid! Fashion has always been something that I wanted to be a part of, but it’s really
shifted now. For me, it’s design as a way to make a social impact, working with extraordinary communities of craftspeople, so they too can have essentially a better life. That’s what it comes down to.”
For the last two years, Mdingi has been working to source his woven textiles and knitwear from crafts communities in Burkina Faso, Somalia, and nearer home in the Eastern Cape. “The idea is to see how we can create something that’s really modern, that marries artisanal craft with fashion that lives in the contemporary world, to create something that’s really honest, steady, and really strong.”
The bright green weave of a trouser suit with strips of hand-dyed Ikat running through it was made by the Cades community of weavers in Mogadishu, Somalia. “They’re amazing, with such a strong sense of finesse within what they do. And what we ended up creating was this beautiful textile. This is something that they’ve been doing for many years, it’s part of their lineage. So it’s really high quality; exquisite.”
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