Stunning debut brings a touch of Africa to London Fashion Week
Tracy McVeigh
Sunday September 18 2011
The Observer
http://www.guardian.co.uk/fashion/2011/sep/18/lesego-malatsi-london-fashion-week
Amid all the glamour and autumnal colours at London fashion week, a
touch of Africa was electrifying the catwalk. With a stunning and
dramatic collection, a young and very nervous designer made his debut
on an international catwalk.
Lesego Malatsi is not a privileged western design school graduate
swathed in expensive labels but a young man from a South African
township whose journey from rags to couture is as remarkable as his
clothes. "I never dreamed I would be showing my clothes on the
international stage," said Malatsi. "I never realised it could happen
and it is very exciting."
Malatsi's ambitions were formed under the corrugated-metal roof of his
home in Soweto, Johannesburg, but there was no money to send him to
college and he seemed destined to join South Africa's unemployed. "But
after my father passed away, my mother had a small pension and she
used it to send me to school. It was difficult to study because
fashion is one career that requires a lot of money, it can be elite. I
didn't realise that until I was midway through my studies, so it was
not easy, it was difficult, but I wanted a good education."
On leaving college, Malatsi found local banks were not willing to
invest in a young man who wanted to make clothes and he faced the dole
queue once again until a chance recommendation found him at the doors
of Richard Branson's business mentoring foundation, Virgin Unite. He
began Mzansi Designers Emporium and found himself employing a growing
number of staff.
"There is a lot of talent in Africa. It made me realise how important
my success was to not just me and my family [but] for empowering other
people." Malatsi now has 17 people working for him and has become one
of a growing surge of young entrepreneurs in South Africa and many
believe they will be the key to lifting the country out of poverty. "I
didn't set out to be an entrepreneur, I wanted to work, but now I find
I have a business and a vision. I have a five-year plan to create 850
jobs in South Africa and to take African fashion global," he said.
"One message that I wanted to put across is that we want to break the
stereotypes of Africa, the perception people have of Africa. In South
Africa, we are celebrated as being the rainbow nation by the rest of
the world and I think my use of colour reflects that. I tried to
transcend what is seen as European and what is seen as African, forget
the racial lines, and also to change the perception of how clothes
should be worn."
Talking before last night's show he said he could not remember the
racial mix of the models he chooses to wear his clothes. "I don't know
the ratio, I didn't think that way. I just think about people wearing
beautiful clothes. Because these are not just clothes for catwalk
models, these are clothes for every person."
After last night's show, organiser Fashions Finest said the collection
had set the catwalk alight, tweeting the clothes were "hotter than
hot".
With Richard Branson now a fan of Malatsi's menswear and a new
flagship store in Johannesburg for his label, Malatsi is ready to
bring South African creativity to the fashionistas of Europe. "I am a
boy from Soweto but I have global ambitions," he said.
London fashion week is part of the biannual round of seasonal fashion
shows that take place in New York, London, Milan and Paris. The
African theme was also present in New York where Nigerian fashionista
Lanre Da Silva-Ajayi presented her latest collection in an
acclaimedrunway show.
guardian.co.uk Copyright (c) Guardian News and Media Limited. 2011
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