Rich Colors, Richer Prints, the Richest Textures: Meet luxury fashion label RICH MNISI, South Africa’s imitable answer to Louis Vuitton and co, that has taken the fashion world by storm.
The eponymous high-end fashion label, founded by Johannesburg-born Rich Mnisi, more than holds its own against global designer fashion labels in terms of quality, luxury, and craftsmanship, but the brand is also uniquely, quintessentially African.
Founded in 2015 by Mnisi, named Africa Fashion International Young Designer of the Year at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Africa in 2014, RICH MNISI has grown into a contemporary, multi-disciplinary brand that features avant-garde couture, an amalgam of idiosyncratic and classic ready-to-wear items, distinctive accessories, and even a furniture collection.
RICH MNISI perfectly straddles the line between African tradition and African innovation. Focused on the now, while paying homage to the then, the brand favors extremist-yet-minimalist structures. Mnisi’s designs tend to include traditional prints and customary textures, which are juxtaposed with innovative, high-fashion silhouettes. RICH MNISI absolutely has a global view—and having been featured on the editorial pages of GQ, Vogue China, Vogue Russia, Vogue Italia, and Bella Nigeria, to name but a few, is well on its way to globalization; however, rather than harking after or imitating Western trends, the brand opts to set distinctly African trends.
Inspired by modern culture and heritage, Africanism and internationalism, extremism and minimalism, RICH MNISI tells a uniquely African, yet globally resonant story. 2019’s LOBOLA Collection is an excellent example of this. ‘Lobola’ or ‘lobolo’, in a number of native Southern African tongues, may be referred to as ‘bride wealth’, whereby livestock is traditionally paid by a prospective husband or the head of his family to his prospective wife’s family in gratitude of letting the husband marry their daughter.
The practice of lobola, while perhaps easily dismissed as archaic by the Western world, recognizes the inherent value of a woman—contemporarily, not merely her so-called ‘feminine virtues’ but also her level of education and professional success, amongst other aspects. This is the aspect of the tradition that inspired Mnisi’s collection, with the ‘strength and value of a woman’, and the celebration of and empowerment of African women, being precisely the focus of his collection. Says Mnisi, ‘Mothers are the cornerstone of African family structures. From generation to generation, mothers are revered to be fierce protectors. They birth nations and carry the burdens of the world on their shoulders. Our matriarchs have continuously been erased or underrepresented in the patriarchal center of memory and in the androcentric etymology of words that shape culture.’
This, honoring the strong women that influenced Mnisi and the matriarchs of the continent in general, is a preoccupation not only of the LOBOLA Collection, but of Mnisi’s previous collections, such as 2018’s MOTHER and NWA-MULAMULA, as well. The RICH MNISI furniture collection also pays homage to Mnisi’s late great grandmother. The key item in the collection is a chaise, which was designed to take the shape of Nwa-Mulamula’s (The Guardian) body, presenting her presence and long-lasting teachings.
The Nwa-Mulamula Chaise: Modernist and contemporary, yet deeply meaningful and traditional.
Other recent RICH MNISI projects and collaborations include a collaboration with Coca Cola, a luxury loungewear range, and his latest runway collection, ALKEBULAN ’20. For us, RICH MNISI is definitely a brand to watch.
You can shop the brand here.
Photo Credit: https://www.richmnisi.com/
by Illona Meyer
Africa Global News Publication
