From Paris to Milan, Khosi Nkosi is taking over the world, a seam at a time

The current season’s fashion weeks are drawing to a close and the design duo behind Khosi Nkosi are bidding adieu to powerhouse locations in Europe. 

At the Milan Fashion Week, their collection looked back at the brand’s 17-year legacy; an element they focused on for their Paris Fashion Week collection, in collaboration with an unexpected partner — Africa Bank.

Reimagining the bank’s uniform — using Khosi Nkosi’s expertise in African prints — the collection was included in their showcase at the Paris event over the weekend. We chat to the founders of the brand, Nobukhosi Nkosi and Thabo Mukwevho, about the collection and the future of African fashion.

Please run us through your Milan collection.

So, the collection is paying homage to when the bank was started, which was about the 60s and 70s. Through the music for the show, we went for gospel, which our parents and grandparents used to listen to back in those days. We close the show with the national anthem, which is a prayer in itself. In terms of the clothing, we chose to style it with something customers can wear to work, church and traditional weddings if they chose to.

This is an unexpected pairing to debut at Milan Fashion Week. Why?

This collaboration is something special and near and dear to our hearts. It came at a time when we felt stagnant as a brand. We've been in retail since 2008 and it made us feel like we hit a ceiling. We needed to step out and move onto another level. This partnership allows us to stretch the brand’s legs and see how far we can go. It’s fitting that we bring African Bank and take it with us to put it on an international platform. It’s groundbreaking. I don’t think it’s been done before.

Your focus has always been on African prints and fabrics, but this collection seems to blend different textiles to imagine a new one. What was the story you were telling with the prints seen in the Africa Bank collection going to Paris Fashion Week?

We are known for celebrating heritage and cultures, but this collaboration is profound because their new corporate identity allowed them to embrace a new array of graphics. We took what they had in their corporate identity and we played with it to make them seem like a shweshwe design. 

When it comes to African prints, what has given them a longevity compared to the eras when it is simply a fad for personal expression or costumes?

With South African fashion, we grew up seeing our parents and grandparents wearing this. It’s nothing foreign to us. It’s part of our culture and heritage, embracing being South African. We have to go to traditional weddings and ceremonies, so in noticing that we decided to be true to our DNA, which is being African first. We can see it in how other countries embrace African cloth — such as kente — so it’s befitting for us as South Africans to show the world the things we hold dear to our hearts.

How do we protect local designs and textiles to avoid appropriation whenever showcasing them to international audiences?

When it comes to creativity, I think everyone ... has a sense of being creative and innovative. Where the world is right now, no-one comes with a new idea — we just innovate on what is already there.

It’s such a big compliment when big brands come to South Africa for inspiration — that means that we’ve got gold. It’s up to us to not take offence but as an indication that we do have something special. Even as a brand, we’ve experienced our designs being replicated. When that happens for the first time, it has such an affect, but it’s something you can’t run away from. It’s a compliment because whatever you came up with, it means you need to innovate and come up with something better.