It is hard to pinpoint how old the South African fashion industry is, but perhaps, a defining indicator of how far it has come is South African Fashion Week, which rolled out its first runway in 1997. Palesa Mokubung helped take the industry further when she launched her label Mantsho in 2004. She is among a crop of designers leading the way in the industry. With her eye-catching collections made from in-house, boldly coloured prints and flattering silhouettes, Mokubung continues to create memorable pieces for the contemporary South African woman.
Palesa Mokubung’s energy is electric, and reaches me through our different time zones and unpredictable internet algorithms. For the past 17 years, Mokubung has led operations and creative processes at Mantsho, her Johannesburg-based fashion design brand, which last year, made headlines for being the first African brand to collaborate with retail giant H&M, to launch an African capsule collection. AMAKA spoke with Mokubung to discuss her brand’s origins, its journey so far, as well as her future aspirations and personal evolution as a fashion entrepreneur with nearly two decades in the industry.
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AMAKA: What does Mantsho mean and have you always been interested in fashion?
Mantsho means “a beautiful Black girl.” That was my nickname when I was growing up. It wasn’t a nickname that I liked very much but when I grew older, I sort of started becoming that proud young Black girl that they were assuming I was. I grew up in a very artistic family. My father is artistic, my mother is an intellectual. I have a sibling, my brother (it’s just the two of us) who is older than me and he is a graphic designer. I knew from watching him and how passionate he was that I would end up in the arts. At the end of my final year in high school, my mother said: well, why don’t you try fashion design? So, I decided to enquire at school. The fashion design queue was the shortest queue so I decided to join and enrolled in fashion. We were taught how to express ourselves very early. I think that's what people love about my label. I’m able to create from a sincere place and from the heart. I know how to dive into my soul, to get my thoughts out, and put them in these shapes and in these fabrics. Of course, I [still] went to school to get the very technical aspects of being a fashion designer. I got a job after my first year as a young designer for a fashion company in South Africa. I worked there for three years. After that I went off to travel the world a little bit and then I started my label.
How has Mantsho changed with the trends and tastes of fashion over the years? Do you think the pieces you create follow or lead the times?
I think the keyword here is clients. I grew up with my clients. When I first started, I did not know I was the woman I wanted to dress. I've always made clothes for someone older than me, but I caught up with them. I became that woman that I now dress. The brand has grown because I have grown and I have embodied that woman and I live the life of a woman who is a leader, who is breaking boundaries, who is strong but also has a sensitive, soft side to her and all of that you see in her wardrobe. I think the brand has grown because I have and I’m in the forefront, right there with all the women I dress. They are power women—I dress power women.
In the last few years, we’ve seen international brands steal designs from African female designers. Have you ever had to deal with a similar situation?
Look, that’s a very sad, sensitive and upsetting question really, but a reality. I’m actually dealing with a local supplier doing that. I’ve got a legal team that handles my trademark and they’re helping me with the case, but I’ve never had that issue with an international label. And this was part of the reasons I was so happy to join forces with H&M. They did not come to Africa and take from our aesthetics to make it theirs. They came in and they said: we’re looking at a couple of designers. They did not just come directly to me. I think they had three designers on their shortlist that they wanted to talk with. And after the global team came to Africa to meet with the designers, we kind of hit it off but I did not want to get ahead of myself. We had very honest conversations about some of the concerns that I might have had, or questions I wanted to ask and they were also able to put their cards on the table and say exactly what their intentions were. I’ve never had to deal with it internationally but I’ve had to deal with it locally quite a bit. It’s quite frustrating and disheartening sometimes—and painful.
It’s been 17 years since you started Mantsho. What has been the most rewarding aspect of this journey as a fashion entrepreneur in a country like South Africa?
I have to say this again—quality of life. When I say quality of life, I mean quality of time, having the freedom to do what I want to do when I can and want to do it. Yes, I run this company and it’s demanding but if I wanted to do something on a personal front tomorrow, I'll be able to do it, and that’s something extremely valuable. As a result, I’ve been able to create the life I want and that’s something that can take some people a long time. I have a beautiful life. My life is not a struggle, it’s like breathing. It’s easy for me and that’s a reward, and something that I’ve earned. I can take a day but I can also have back-to-back hectic months with my job—but that’s what it takes.
Mantsho runs a full-fledged ecommerce platform. Was it always like this?
In the 17 years I’ve been doing this I would say that although I knew I was creative, I was not as focused in my earlier years as I needed to be. So, they didn’t bear a lot of fruit. I covered a lot of ground in that I created a business, I did a number of fashion shows and my artistry could be seen and people would say ‘oh, this girl’s got potential,’ but that’s all it was. Only in the past eight years, when I grew older [did] something happen, and I realised I have something, but I’m not doing much with it and I changed my business.
So, in the 17 years, there was a three-year gap where I stopped working, went back to school and got my Bachelor’s degree in fashion design. That’s when my career started and my newfound business started making its way. The company that you and I are talking about now, is about seven years old, which is since I earned my degree as a fashion designer. Before that, I was kind of winging it. Somewhere along the way, I started building my ecommerce platform on my own. This was at a time when ecommerce was not very popular. Not a lot of my peers or competitors were doing it, which gave me enough time to learn and polish it for what it is right now: a well-functioning point of sale that really works for my business. It is a central part of my business.
Running a business in many parts of the continent is incredibly challenging. Where do you find support in your most trying times?
I’ve identified a few people in the industry who care about me, know my journey, are rooting for me and are gurus in their own fields. Lucilla Booyzen, the founder of South Africa Fashion Week is one of them. If I have any question regarding anything I’m doing, I give her a call to help me discern. My mother is also a good one. She’s on my advisory board so to speak. She’s cutthroat and very protective of me and she can tell from a mile away if something is good for me or not. And there’s my husband and my household. My husband comes from one of the toughest countries in the world to thrive in: Nigeria, and so he has a different mind and drive from what I have. Things that I think are a problem, to him, they’re not. I like that strength that I see in Nigerians. I’ve been travelling to Nigeria for about a decade now and I think I’ve developed a thick skin, that stubbornness that Nigerians have, and it helps me.
Are all the pieces manufactured—from fabric to finished product—in South Africa?
Correct. I run a small studio with a staff of ten people. We do all the construction there. I do all the designing there too. Then I’ve got patterns and production and we also service all our clients (online and the stores we occasionally supply) from our base.
What are you looking forward to in the coming years, for you and for Mantsho?
Definitely fashion week. There are autumn/winter shows coming up soon and you’ll see the pictures in October sometime. We are very, very busy with that. It’s a small collection: ten, maybe twelve items. We take fashion weeks very seriously. It’s such an important time. It forces you to be creative, to evolve and really, really push yourself. I’m looking forward to a few other projects that are coming up next year. Our 2022 vision board is already on the table and we are building it. We know we have made a mark, but it is really just the beginning because the industry is young and we are a company that has a very strong voice within that industry.