Design for Stage and Film
Mabu

Mabu49 Spring/Summer 2011

Mabu is the debut collection for my clothing label Mabu49, which was officially launched at the Spring/Summer South African Fashion Week in 2011. Mabu is my mother’s name, and it is a Pedi/Northern Sotho (a South African language) word meaning ‘mother of the earth’. Thus my mother and her effortless style in the 1970s have inspired this debut collection. The recurring print, engraved in leather, and printed on chiffon, is derived from wave rock formations, and it is an ode to the position that my mother plays in the family – the rock of the family. Growing up my mother taught me how to do Zulu beadwork as a result I have also included some beadwork details in the clothing. 

Photography: Motheo Moeng

Styling and Make – up: Ntokozo F Kunene