Thebe Magugu: Clothes as Living Records

Clothes as Living Records

ÉPOPLI · 2026-10-12

Portrait of Thebe Magugu.African Fashion Research Institute · CC BY 3.0. Web-sized copy; source framing retained. · Source · Rights

When a fingerprint becomes a pattern

Thebe Magugu history can begin with the apparently familiar dots on a translucent black-and-white dress from spring 2021. Up close they are fingerprints, drawn from research into South African espionage. A blue parka in the same presentation transformed a polygraph trace into zigzags. Political memory entered a wearable surface rather than a slogan.

Both identification tools become patterns through changes of scale and repetition. Colour and rhythm work before the reference is explained; afterwards, the viewer reads the same surface differently. This double encounter—first looking, then recognising—defines a central question in the work: how can clothing carry a complicated national memory into everyday life?

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From Kimberley to Johannesburg

Thebe Magugu history begins in Kimberley, South Africa, where he was born in 1993. He moved to Johannesburg to study design, fashion photography and fashion media at LISOF. Internships and retail work followed before the namesake label launched in 2016. Making clothes and communicating their meaning had therefore developed together. Collections took titles associated with fields of study, from geology to home economics.

Winning the LVMH Prize in 2019 expanded the label’s opportunities. The annual Faculty Press journal, launched that year, created another platform for emerging African writers and creatives. Images, essays and clothes place different voices alongside one another. The educational ambition emerges through these connected media as much as through collection titles.

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Alchemy: ritual becomes texture

Thebe Magugu history presents collaboration vividly in autumn 2021’s Alchemy. Stylist and traditional healer Noentla Khumalo’s divination objects were photographed on straw and translated into printed wool suiting. Photography begins the fabric rather than merely documenting the finished outfit. Small objects spread across the larger moving planes of jacket and trousers.

Raised knit structures and plant-based impressions added tactile registers. Textile collaborators included Larissa Don and Byborre. A printed outline invites recognition, while a raised surface evokes touch; their juxtaposition gives the collection’s questions about ancestors and healing several material forms.

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Twenty-five looks from a secondhand market

Thebe Magugu history takes Discard Theory to Dunusa, Johannesburg’s secondhand clothing market. Materials discarded by Europe and America became the starting point for 25 looks shown at the V&A’s Fashion in Motion in 2022. Shirt-like black garments, layered pleats, green-and-white stripes and tall boots mixed recognisable clothing languages.

A disciplined shirt front meets the rhythm of tiered fabric; stripes direct the eye while boots extend colour down the body. Starting with secondhand clothes does not require a distressed finish. It can mean relocating familiar forms into new combinations. The collection treats reuse as a cultural and formal process occurring in a particular city.

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Folklore enters a suit

Thebe Magugu history turns to oral storytelling in Shipwreck from the 2023 Folklorics collection. The NGV ensemble comprises jacket, top, trousers, headscarf and shoes, with a nautical print inspired by Mami Wata folklore. The image travels between separate pieces rather than occupying a single framed surface.

Jacket and trousers remain recognisable wardrobe components while the marine imagery changes their atmosphere. Removing a layer or adjusting a scarf changes the composition. The story thus meets the wearer’s movement. Compared with the espionage collection, the source material is different, but the method of placing unfamiliar imagery within legible clothing structures continues.

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Collaborators and an independent business

Thebe Magugu history becomes fuller when collaborators remain visible. The NGV credits illustrator Phathu Nembilwi alongside the designer for Girl seeks Girl from the 2018 Home Economics collection. This collaboration’s record distinguishes the original design from a later remake, preserving both image authorship and the object’s timeline.

Travel restrictions and cancelled orders in 2020 encouraged online retail and renewed attention to local production. For an independent label, films and writing also became routes through which work could reach customers when physical encounters were restricted. Image-making, manufacturing and wear belong to the same continuing practice.

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From the body into space

Thebe Magugu history extends into hospitality in 2026 through Mount Nelson in Cape Town. A suite introduced in February was followed in March by Magugu House Cape Town. Its opening exhibition, co-curated with Julia Buchanan, included work by Zanele Muholi and Zizipho Poswa, linking a fashion setting with encounters with art.

Across the clothes, fingerprints, ritual objects, secondhand markets and oral tales remain distinct sources. Familiar suits and shirts make those differences wearable. A viewer can encounter proportion and colour first, then return through research and collaborators’ stories. Clothing becomes a record when use and repeated reading meet.

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Timeline

1993 — Born in Kimberley.
2016 — Launches his label.
2019 — Wins LVMH Prize; launches Faculty Press.
2021 — Alchemy collection.
2022 — Presents Discard Theory at the V&A.
2023 — Folklorics collection.
2026 — Mount Nelson suite and Magugu House Cape Town.