This South African Designer’s Makoti Blanket Is Selling For R10 000!
This South African Designer’s Makoti Blanket Is Selling For R10 000! Matte Nolim, a South African luxury fashion outlet offered what is popularly known as a makoti shawl or makoti blanket for R10,000 – and all four sold out within two days.
“Everyone looks down upon the things we found in out grannies’ homes and you don’t look at the quality of them. No one really tells you how great a quality they have, and that blanket is one of those things. Luxury is meant to last generations and lifetimes, that blanket is one of those things,” Siyethemba Duma, founder of Matte Nolim told Business Insider.
Siyethemba Duma, also known as Matte, was born in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu Natal. He graduated as a designer at the Durban University of Technology and had a stint interning for Terence Bray Studio. In 2014 Matte established MATTE NOLIM, with which he participated with in the retail program by the KZN Fashion Counsel called ‘21steps to retail. The program led to him showcasing at the 2015 Autumn/ Winter SA Fashion Week which he followed with his Spring / Summer collection in 2016. To raving reviews he also showed at the Mercedes Benz Fashion week with his Spring / Summer 2017 collection.
The Matte Nolim aesthetic is modern minimalism, the brand dresses a young mind set more than age group, they target the young at heart and also professionals in their fields. Matte Nolim has been featured in a number of local and international fashion magazines including Elle Magazine South Africa, Cosmopolitan South Africa and has featured in a number of South African Television adverts. “I’ve been borrowing a lot from African culture, from what I grew up with and what was looked down upon within my culture, and trying to repackage that as African Luxury,” Duma told Business Insider.
When asked about a similar blanket from Pep that is selling for R300, Duma told Business Insider that, “Both are mohair but the Pep one is a much softer weight, it’s not a heavy weight. This R10,000 blanket is not exactly what my granny used to use, this is of slightly higher quality. This you won’t normally find at PEP.” Duma added.
