Cross Over to the Dark Side…

Themba Mngomezulu, the designer behind the label 'Darkie.'Photos from Darkie's fashion shows. One from a recent Levi's Show (first left) and the other three from South African Fashion Week, 2004/05.

South African fashion is so overlooked it borders on ridiculous. Fear not, while surfing the net I found an essential web site for those who are interested in keeping up-to-date with urban culture, lifestyle and general news in Joannesburg, Cape Town and other cities. There may be better sites out there but I quite like this one called Rage. While on the site I read about an emerging fashion guru called Themba Mngomezulu who designs for "Darkie," the label he founded in 2002. Themba credits his mother for his initial interest in fashion. She would trade second hand clothing from their garage and he still buys items from her to this day. With fashion in his veins, Themba moved to Cape Town in 2004 to fully realize his dream and with the help of his new partner, Azaad Carrim, Themba now runs a design house with 25 employees. He says of his design aesthetic:

‘We’re a fast-forward brand. We like to design both locally and globally. We’re a South African design team and we’re creating our Darkie style. We try not to focus solely on the international influences because they don’t understand our style. South Africa has an amazing 11 different cultures and that inspires us every day.’

Darkie is primarily a sportswear/lifestyle label. Many of their t-shirts feature cultural icons such as Muhammad Ali, Ray Charles and Nelson Mandela and their favortie material of choice seems to be denim. You can read more about Themba here. I’ve yet to find a web site but I’ll keep you posted ;)