Fashion Designer Thabo Makhetha Shares Why Her Clothing Brand Is Hugely Influenced By Her Culture
Fashion Designer Thabo Makhetha Shares Why Her Clothing Brand Is Hugely Influenced By Her Culture. The representation of culture and heritage is very important to many people as this signifies that they are proud of their culture and to show the world what they have to offer. Many designers are incorporating their cultures into their designs so that people around the world can appreciate their designs for being authentic.
Fashion Designer Thabo Makhetha shared why it’s important for her to incorporate African inspired designs into the clothing brand. In an interview with The Insider SA, Makhetha said, “My love for fashion juts steamed from me just wanting to show off my heritage and show off my culture as well. My inspiration for my designs are from my heritage and my culture because I always enjoy the story that we were telling through the clothing and I love to use garments that have a cultural reference to them as well, I just always find garments with a cultural reference as more timeless, they can be worn at any other stage and they’re not outdated and with the Basotho culture for me, getting more into my culture has made me look at the African continent as a whole and more than anything it’s where do we come from? What is our choice of reference when we are telling our stories?”
Thabo Makhetha is a luxury women’s wear label established in 2009. It is best known for its pret-a-porter range of capes inspired and made from traditional Basotho blankets, known as Kobo EaBohali or Kobo by Thabo Makhetha. These blankets are the heritage of the designer Thabo Makhetha-Kwinana. It is through the Kobo garments that she is able to share the story of her culture and her heritage as a Mosotho woman.
The label is globally recognised for using and taking inspiration from authentic Basotho blankets and creating a collection of winter wear jackets and coats. The Basotho blanket is a symbol of status with deep cultural roots dating over a century in Lesotho, a small landlocked country in Southern Africa ruled by a monarchy.
