The Hub Imbizo with Laduma Ngxokolo
Fri Jul 19, 17:30 - Fri Jul 19, 18:30
Impact Hub Joburg
ABOUT
The Hub Imbizo is...
a gathering, an inspirational talk, and a place for chatting with the coolest South Africans who support and develop culture in our country through creative social enterprises.
This Friday, we will be in conversation with the amazing Laduma about his journey with the Maxhosa brand. We'll hear how and why he started on this path, what its like to share and empower South African culture, and what the journey has been like to start and run a now internationally-acclaimed social enterprise, Maxhosa Africa by Laduma, a Xhosa-inspired knitwear band.
Laduma was, and continues to be, driven to develop premium knitwear that celebrates traditional Xhosa aesthetics. He established the Maxhosa Africa brand in d 2011 with a desire to explore knitwear design solutions that would be suitable for the amakrwala (Xhosa initiates) traditional dress.
As a person who has undergone this initiation ritual, he believed that he needed to develop a premium knitwear range that celebrates traditional Xhosa beadwork aesthetics, using South African mohair and wool. Since then, Laduma has received numerous achievements and captured the hearts of many fashion lovers and media from South Africa, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Oslo, Berlin and New York.
Laduma won the 2015 Vogue Italia Scouting for Africa prize to showcase his collections at the Palazzo Morando Show in Milan, Italy. Furthermore, he was awarded the 2014 WeTransfer Scholarship to study masters in Material Futures at the Central St. Martins and graduated in 2016. New African Magazine named him one of the 100 Most Influential Africans of 2017.
Through his work, Laduma is an agent of change, shifting and evolving with the changing times and further engaging in the dialogue that keeps pushing traditional culture toward the future.