Contemporary South African fashion designer Thebe Magugu is taking up space in both the technology and fashion industry.
Magugu has collaborated with top brand Samsung for the GalaxyZFlip5, creating garments inspired by the phone.
Speaking to Sunday World this week, he said he always wanted to align with partners who own their own beliefs, missions, and vision the same way he does.
“Fashion and tech now more than ever are one of the biggest things. Tech is helping some of the issues that fashion has long battled with, such as eco-friendly fabrication,” he said.
He noted that he always loves to contextualize and put garments into a story, thinks through photography, which helps him as a designer.
Magugu often uses juxtaposition and is inspired by his past, heritage, and culture. In most of his designs, he is a big fan of using colour purple.
“I think the inspiration behind using the color purple comes from the church regalia, which I grew up seeing at church,” he shared.
“Purple is a unique color, belongs to anyone, and can be a chameleon in so many ways.”
Magugu, who is also the brains behind Orlando Pirates’ new soccer kit, said he never imagined he would design a soccer kit.
This has made him become more attentive to soccer, in a way that he now never misses any Orlando Pirates game.
Sports kits, he added, are supposed to be beautiful, functional and inspire the fans. Amid the uproar when the kits were shared on social media, he said he was not mad about it.
“The work that I did was so confrontational, and people were going to have an opinion about it.
“It would have broken my heart if it was just another jersey, whatever I do has to be bold and true to who I am.”
Magugu said he had to go off social media for some time after people first reacted to the kits, but now some are apologizing and singing a different tune.
“Nobody can tell me otherwise about that jersey I love it to death.”
Also Read: Thebe Magugu the brains behind Orlando Pirates new kit
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