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Cape Town Designers Build Fashion Brands That Speak To The Youth

Cape Town Designers Build Fashion Brands That Speak To The Youth

https://youtu.be/5Qifg4YHhWQ

While South Africa’s fashion shops are still dominated by foreign labels like Nike and Adidas, local designs are slowly finding their space in the market and Cape Town is emerging as a design capital and manufacturing hub with a refreshing difference.

One of these upcoming designers is Nick Kaoma.

Kaoma dropped out of the University in 2002 to start a fashion label company called Head Hancho based in Cape Town, which he says is now more than just a clothing line but seeks to speak to the cool and hip youth of South Africa.

“Our mission is to inspire people to look progressively. We just happen to use clothing as a canvas and as a platform to do that,” Themba told CNN in an interview.

“Head Hancho is a young guy or girl that probably comes from a previously disadvantaged background but they don’t allow their background to dictate who or what they become. We try to speak to those guys. We try to say to them it’s possible, it’s doable,”

Another Cape Town-based designer, Themba Mngomezulu of Darkie Clothing, says that making it in the South African fashion business one’s product must be “80 percent dough, 20 percent show” meaning any it must be able to sell and be something that’s “out of this world”.

“In South Africa it (Darkie) represents someone who is dark and also the lifestyle of someone who lives a rebellious culture,” Themba said in an interview with CNN.