5 minutes with designer Pieter Burger of Wake

18 June 2015 - 02:00 By Roxanne Robinson
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Pieter Burger walks the runway with a model wearing his designs during Wake's Spring/Summer 2015 show at SA Fashion Week.
Pieter Burger walks the runway with a model wearing his designs during Wake's Spring/Summer 2015 show at SA Fashion Week.
Image: Simon Deiner / SDR Photo

This Joburg-based designer took “a giant leap of faith” in 2013 when he founded his own fashion label, Wake, at the age of 22, along with Carla Roos. Pieter Burger is now living his dream creating bold clothes that reinterpret the African aesthetic

Explain the Wake brand.

Wake is a brand that focuses on basic shapes, but has a vibrant and vivid approach to fabric, texture and colour. The brand has a strong African thread that runs through it. (Watch Wake's Spring/Summer 2015 show at SA Fashion Week below.)

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Last year you and Carla Roos won the SA Fashion Week Renault New Talent Search. How has your life changed since?

Winning this competition turned my life upside down. It was the platform I needed to break into this challenging industry and it created great opportunities for me. Wake opened its flagship store at 70 Juta Street, Braamfontein, Joburg, and an online store is launching soon.

Carla decided to leave Wake at the end of last year to further her studies in fashion.

Where is your favourite space to be when you’re feeling uninspired?

I love being in the home I grew up, where all my memories are vivid.

What music do you have on repeat?

Stevie Nicks and lately I’ve been listening to local band Bittereinder.

Which major fashion designer would you love to work for?

Mary Katrantzou.

Who is your favourite local designer?

Laduma Ngxokolo of Maxhosa by Laduma.

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What’s your favourite item of clothing?

My black and white woven knit housewives coat, it’s just perfect!

Success is…

When you are doing what you love and making money from it.

What can you tell us about your next collection?

Wake’s new collection will be called Vagevuur.  It will stay true to the brand’s signature of mixing conceptual and ready-to-wear pieces, teaming black and white with prints and, of course, a bit of African energy.

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