Down to a tee: Cult11AD rages against the runway

Can fashion be used to protest against fashion? Johannesburg-based design duo Miroslav Bijelich and William Ndatila of Cult11AD think so.

A graphic designer and a fashion designer respectively, Bijelich and Ndatila started their label in 2011 to offer customers an alternative to what is paraded on local runways.

Fashion shows have become isolating phenomena - created for the wealthy and the spoilt, flourishing, as British design critic Stephen Bayley puts it, "on surplus. when we buy more than we need".

Ndatila trained as a couturier, but realised that creating outlandish styles for fashion victims was not what he wanted to do. "I wanted to create a statement in a more meaningful way, starting with the most iconic part of wardrobes: the T-shirt".

Their inspiration comes from cult iconography, merging clashing references in a collage of prints taken from global street culture, art and music.

Bijelich had been working in men's trends at Edgars and had become equally disillusioned with "fast fashion".

"There is always this tension between what only the rich can wear and the completely commercial nature of local fashion for the masses."

Their inspiration comes from decades of cult iconography, merging clashing references in a collage of prints taken from global street culture, art and music.

The brand, they say, is reminiscent of former times when fashion was tied to sociological movements and cultural ecology instead of blind consumerism.

''We're stepping off the fashion machine," says Bijelich. ''We're referencing a trend set by British designer Katharine Hamnett, stepping off the catwalks and onto the streets.

As Coco Chanel said: ''Fashion is not something that exists in dresses. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening."

• Cult11AD from Rad in Craighall and notjustalabel.com