Picture: ISTOCK
Picture: ISTOCK

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EVER since US teenagers pulled on workmen’s pants in the 1950s, denim has been an iconic fabric. South African designers are happily joining in.

"I am a denim fanatic," says Tshepo Mohlala, who launched his brand, Tshepo the Jean Maker, in November. "You can play around with denim, transform it."

In 2014, Mohlala and Thato Mafubelu-Matabane teamed up with technology specialist Vusi Ndinisa to launch what is widely accepted as Africa’s first denim brand, AfrikanSwiss.

It all began in Mafubelu-Matabane’s home in Bosmont on the West Rand. "I always had an interest in clothing. I used to make jackets from old jeans. I would tear them apart. Everyone in my home wanted some."

In 2010, Mafubelu-Matabane met Ole Ledimo, who had made a name for himself with the House of Ole fashion brand.

Mafubelu-Matabane interned for Ledimo and worked on AfrikanSwiss on the side, with Ledimo’s blessing.

Mafubelu-Matabane met Mohala at a South African Fashion Week event, and the trio went on to launch AfrikanSwiss.

Mohlala left last year as he "needed to do my own stuff".

Now Mafubelu-Matabane is overhauling the brand. The store the trio opened in the old city centre is gone. Mafubelu-Matabane is focusing on distribution rather than shopkeeping. "It’s less overheads and stress. Opening a store is a whole business on its own. Maybe later."

THERE’S a lot to build on. AfrikanSwiss sells in SA, Kenya and even Atlanta, US, where the quartet 112 have worn the garments.

"I imagined this and more," says Mafubelu-Matabane. "Westerners come and steal our aesthetic and intellectual property and sell it back to us. I believe, why not celebrate and reclaim our African heritage?"

At South African Fashion Week last year, the AfrikanSwiss line’s inspiration was Kenya’s Maasai. This year Mafubelu-Matabane is working on designs that will acknowledge the first South Africans, the Khoisan.

In Cape Town, designer Dennis Chuene is not known for his use of denim, but that will change. This winter will see him launch a line that is 70% denim.

"I’ve always loved denim," he says. "I never got an opportunity to show it. Denim is not a simple item. You wear it a lot and you shouldn’t wash it, so that it shows how you live your life, where you keep your wallet and keys, how you walk. You can’t personalise other clothing like that," Chuene says.

He is following this up with furniture lines such as chesterfields and couches, and items such as light fittings and carpets, all incorporating denim.

He’s not the only one following this route — down in Cape Town, Real+Simple’s Steven Jossel is also extending his denim clothing line.

"The concept is not only apparel, it’s cushions and soft furnishings and aprons for trendy bars and coffee shops," says Jossel, who worked on jeans in large retail stores for 35 years.

Durban-born designer Andile Cele started out in fashion after realising that basketball would not keep him in meals.

"Me and my friend started a T-shirt and caps line. We would buy blank T-shirts and caps and put our own graphics on them, printing and embroidery.

"That was 2001 and it grew very quickly. Every six months, we added something — jeans, skirts, shirts."

IT WAS when Cele tried to get his designs into mainstream stores that he changed tack.

"It was 2001 and streetwear didn’t even exist — the skateboard and hip-hop cultures were just starting to merge."

Realising he had "no clue" about the retail industry, Cele left SA for England, got a job at fashion and homeware store Next and spent time in every department, hoovering up knowledge as he went.

Back in SA, he opened Dope Store in the Johannesburg city centre, selling around 40 brands. "To me, it was much easier if I started building the brand through the store," he says.

Once the store had a following, he began to introduce in-house lines, with denim products in most of them. There are five of these now, and Cele is looking to open stores in other cities.

"I want it that you have to go into the city centre to get my lines, even if you are from Sandton. It’s that secret spot in town," he says.

He spent a year working on getting the patterns for his jeans right. "Not skinny, but fitted. No one was wearing that then," Cele says.

Like all the others, Cele’s holy grail is good-quality denim fabric with which to work. While all the designers manufacture their denim clothing in SA, the fabric is imported and each has their own opinion on where to get the best. All of this — and no doubt more — shows there is growing appetite for South African-designed and made denim.

"From an African point of view," says Mohlala, "I wanted to give the universe a new name for a familiar thing, to show that we are different, but fashion can unite us."