As one of the leading designers in the SA fashion industry, Thebe Magugu has earned a reputation for being the foremost trailblazer when it comes to capturing the essence of local fashion.
This was no exception at his spring/summer 2021 Paris Fashion Week show, which was shown on YouTube. Titled Counter Intelligence, the fashion film was directed by noted fashion photographer Kristin Lee Moolman and styled by fashion editor at large from ID magazine, Ibrahim Kamara. It followed a group of female spies in the latest Magugu threads.
The short film was inspired by a series of interviews with apartheid-era spies who worked for and against the regime, “with a special contribution from Jonathan Ancer, author of Betrayal: The Secret Lives of Apartheid Spies. He read an excerpt on Magugu’s official page.
While the glitz and glam of fashion is often the perfect backdrop for make-believe or a celebration of living and dead industry icons, Magugu’s spies are very real.
One of the spies detailed in the story is Priscilla Lefson, also known as the “blonde spy”. Lefson had recently obtained a BA degree but often went back on campus during a rise in student protests, for which she was paid by police in exchange for information about students’ political activity. At the time, students at Wits were protesting to have the university open to all races. Lefson was exposed as students held placards reading “Keep Wits open – but not to spies”. This caught the attention of thousands of students in London who protested alongside them.
There is also famed spy Olivia Forsyth who in 2015 published her autobiography which detailed her years as a spy in apartheid SA who defected to the ANC and was put in the Quatro prion camp in Angola by ANC officials who did not trust her motives.
Magugu’s collection featured his usual look at the stylish history of SA’s past, which intersects with his modern take on womenswear. We see this particularly in a grey shirt dress with one of the apartheid spies, simply known as Miles, printed on it and a matching tie. Warm tones including yellow, red and even blue give a playful edge to the sharp asymmetrical skirts, blazers and berets bearing Magugu’s monogram. Magugu also created a polka-dot dresses, skirts and blouses that hark back to the 1970s, with the print created from Forsythe’s fingerprints.
Magugu also introduced pieces from his much-anticipated menswear collection inspired by collegiate sports-team staples – brown buttoned-up golfer with matching capris, and a stunning knee-length coat with polygraph test patterns.
