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Black-Owned Fashion Brand Spotlight: Sindiso Khumalo

Posted on July 02, 2020

Sometimes it’s best to stand back and let the artist introduce herself:

Sindiso Khumalo is a sustainable textile designer based in Cape Town. Central St Martins graduate, Khumalo, studied architecture at the University of Cape Town prior to moving to London, where she went onto study a Masters in Design for Textile Futures. Sindiso Khumalo founded her eponymous label with a focus on creating modern sustainable textiles with a strong emphasis on African story telling. She designs the textiles in her collections by hand through watercolours and collage. Over the years she has developed a uniquely colourful visual voice, which draws upon her Zulu and Ndebele heritage, and also speaks to the land of Kwazulu Natal, where she is from. Sustainability, craft and empowerment lie at the heart of the label. She works very closely with a NGO’s in developing handmade textiles for her collections.

And sometimes it’s best to let those willing to award the artist prizes a say as well:

Inspired by her mother who was an activist, Sindiso has been motivated to bring values of social equality and female empowerment into her brand. With textiles and craft at the heart of her collections, she works closely with NGOs and small workshops in South Africa and Burkina Faso producing unique handwoven and hand embroidered textiles for her collections. Khumalo has also spoken on sustainability at the United Nations and the European Development Forum. Her interests lie in the representations of black women from the turn of the 20th century and up to the 1980s, with a focus on portraiture during that period. Each garment thus tells a story about Africa and Women Empowerment. She has recently collaborated with brands such as IKEA and Vodacom and has had her work presented at the Louisana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in Washington, and at the Zeitz Mocaa Museum in Cape Town.

And also because we couldn’t possibly do a better job of letting you know who Sindiso Khumalo is – except to show you her gorgeous work. There’s a real sense of old-school ladylike style, but without the feeling of restraint or confinement. That makes a certain amount of sense because her designs start with the textile, and she clearly enjoys creating stunning fabrics which she molds into classic shapes, with a free, easy, modern feel.