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While studying for a degree in Textile Design and Technology at the Nelson Mandela University in South Africa, Laduma Ngxokolo began experimenting with traditional Xhosa beadwork — a craft originating from the Xhosa people, an ethnic group located in the Cape Provinces of South Africa. Ngxokolo began putting his own spin on the traditional beadwork and applying those techniques to the clothes he was designing. By the end of his degree, Ngxokolo had garnered a small audience eager to purchase his products. In 2011, the luxury label Maxhosa Africa was born, selling Xhosa-inspired knitwear for premium prices — for example, a sleeveless knitted dress retails for £901 ($1,007).
Now one of South Africa’s most promising designer brands, Maxhosa Africa is figuring out how to break into the international market while also continuing to build his brand at home, where there’s an untapped opportunity to become the leading home-grown luxury label.
Vogue Business went backstage at Lagos Fashion Week to hear from African designers about what styles work and how they plan to play on both local and international levels.
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South Africa is currently the biggest luxury market in Africa, worth $133 million, according to Euromonitor International. “South Africa has a rapidly growing middle class that will increasingly enter the luxury market and bodes well for the future, if no further setbacks are experienced,” says Jolandi Grace, Africa’s luxury and fashion community practice leader at Deloitte, in a previous Vogue Business interview. Maxhosa Africa is yet to tap into the continent’s luxury market outside of South Africa, with sales from neighbouring countries accounting for less than 3 per cent of sales.
Instead, he’s focused on other international markets. Maxhosa has shown during London and New York Fashion Weeks and Ngxokolo is eyeing Paris next. The brand has also been to Pitti Uomo in Florence in 2015 and most recently showcased in Japan Fashion Week last year. Beyoncé and Alicia Keys have worn the brand, and sales are around $11 million annually, increasing 70 per cent this year over last.
However, building the brand's presence internationally has not been easy, Ngxokolo says. After securing a scholarship to complete a master’s degree in Material Futures at Central Saint Martins in 2014, he was keen to get his pieces into high-end department stores, which he found to be a surprising hurdle. “During that time, a lot of retailers saw the African aesthetic as a trend that would dilute in [the near future],” he recalls. “Even showrooms that were selling cool, young brands would turn me down.” Previous international retail partners include New York-based etailer The Folklore; Bloomingdale’s in New York; BHV in Paris; and United Arrows in Tokyo.
Those early setbacks have helped Maxhosa Africa redefine its retail strategy, which is now focused on opening retail stores across New York and London, which has a strong local African diaspora community. This strategy allows the brand to sell directly to consumers in its key markets, as well as control how it is presented in stores, Ngxokolo says, something he was unable to do with retail partners. When working with stockists, Ngxokolo recalls how they would select five pieces out of a 250-piece collection, meaning “the customer is walking away not knowing what Maxhosa fully represents”.
At the same time, a more direct business model has allowed Maxhosa Africa to gain ground at home, and the brand is carving out a new African luxury market while spotlighting what luxury on the continent looks like today. A number of emerging designers on the African continent are singularly focused on building their brands internationally, but Ngxokolo believes there is also money to be made on the continent.
“The strategy that we have been rolling out the last eight years is to penetrate the local markets, because there is a lot of money circulating within this market,” he says. As part of that localised retail strategy, Maxhosa Africa has opened three stores across South Africa. During the Covid-19 pandemic, he opened a store next door to Gucci and Louis Vuitton in Cape Town; last month Maxhosa Africa opened a store in his hometown, Port Elizabeth; later this month, he plans to open a store in Durban. “After Durban, we would have hit all the fashion capitals in South Africa,” he says. “So our desire was to make sure we at least hit the ceiling at home [in South Africa], before we hop on to the overseas market.” Maxhosa Africa is self-funded.
His goal is to change the perception of what it means to be Made in Africa, which Maxhosa fully is.
“It’s very rare and very unexpected that if you’re doing something of high value – and that is premium quality – that it would have a Made in Africa label,” he says, adding that the South African-made in particular has continued to cement its place within the wider luxury market whilst showcasing the quality of the local supply chain. “The name, [Maxhosa], is the name of a cultural group, which represents around 1 per cent of the South African population, and we use that as a case study to showcase how beautiful Africa can be. That is the narrative we share with local people in South Africa, Africans in neighbouring African countries, and also in the international markets.”
There are logistical hurdles to overcome. People in Africa are often not confident in their local couriers, so they choose to purchase items when in London or have orders sent directly to London, Ngxokolo says, noting that intra-continental shipping and local infrastructure have to improve before consumer confidence can be restored. “I have personally tried to buy pieces from other brands online from Cote d’Ivoire and other countries, and they would take three to six months to arrive. Some will even send them to France first and then from France it would come to Johannesburg. So there are still a lot of glitches within the continent.”
The feeble infrastructure has a rippling effect on the continent’s supply chain, from the raw materials to the end consumer, says Jacqueline Shaw, a fashion supply chain expert and founder of the B2B platform Fashion Africa Trade Expo. “This has been a major issue for a long time,” she says, adding that shipping products within Africa, particularly to countries that are landlocked, have been challenging due to increasing custom fees and import duties. Purchasing items abroad allows for a simplified purchasing experience for the African customer as they avoid “the rigmarole or the challenges from shipping and duties to the timings”.
The African Free Trade Area, which opened in 2021, has enabled trade across African countries. “Now with the African free trade agreement, that should help things in the longer term, but in the short term the challenges are still there,” Shaw says.
The travel retail market remains untapped in Africa, says Ngxokolo, and he sees an opportunity. “If you connect in Doha or Dubai, you're able to shop a lot of luxury brands, but that is not the case with us in Africa… and we are trying to change that,” he says. “We are working to place our brand and opening up a boutique in international airports. We want to get to a point where if you travel to South Africa and happen to connect, you’ll be able to go to a Maxhosa store in the duty free area.”
Long term, the aim is to operate in multiple fashion capitals in the world, including Dubai, Japan, South Korea and Europe. Ngxokolo adds that he wants to be listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange.
“The ultimate goal is to make an impact on the African economy,” he says. “What is the point in having a well respected African brand if it’s not meaningful to the African economy?”
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