Thebe Magugu is establishing home.
The South African designer has opened his first retail location in Johannesburg, however Magugu Home is greater than only a retailer. Set on a 32,000-square-foot plot within the upscale suburb of Dunkeld, the home and backyard may also host exhibitions and occasions.
Inbuilt 1931, the house on leafy Bompas Street has been in the identical household for 3 generations. It’s been transformed to deal with each public areas and the model’s workplaces, along with an atelier for small customized productions.
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The bottom flooring, painted in signature shades of pistachio and terracotta, has a showroom, becoming room, reception room and two small artwork galleries showcasing the newest installment of Magugu’s Heritage capsule assortment, alongside the mission he did with Valentino as a part of U.S. Vogue’s dress-swap initiative.
A nook within the entrance corridor shows the guide tote bearing the model’s signature sisterhood emblem which he designed as a part of his capsule assortment for Dior.
Magugu, who received the LVMH Prize for Younger Designers in 2019, likes to call his collections after college matters, utilizing garments to shine a highlight on elements of South African tradition starting from the repercussions of apartheid to his private household historical past.
A chunk from his fall 2023 assortment, titled Folklorics, is featured in the “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Trend” exhibition on the Metropolitan Museum of Artwork‘s Costume Institute in New York Metropolis.
“This could nearly be like a campus that encapsulates all that I need the model to develop into. It’s not simply the place you’ll be able to come and purchase lovely clothes, however I actually need to have unbelievable, stellar experiences,” he informed WWD in an unique interview.
The furnishings has been customized by South African firm Weylandts and the area incorporates a portray by Nelson Makamo incorporating one in every of Magugu’s clothes tags — a teaser for a attainable future collaboration.
The designer desires the galleries to be a springboard for rising artists in addition to a refuge for established artists.
“There’s not a variety of partaking areas, I really feel, right here in Johannesburg. If it’s retail, it’s retail for retail’s sake,” he stated. “Individuals are wanting in the direction of one thing that feels larger than you simply attempting to cross on a shirt.”
He scouted the placement to be near his rich clientele. Johannesburg has probably the most millionaires in Africa, in line with the 2023 Africa Wealth Report by a British funding migration consultancy Henley & Companions. However Magugu is casting a wider web.
“I like the concept sure, the area is for my clientele, however say college students, or somebody who can’t essentially afford to get the principle assortment, can catch a panel dialogue by their favourite artist right here on the studios,” he stated.
He desires to contain his companions. In future, Magugu Home would possibly host ticketed dwell classes with Spotify, or yoga courses with Adidas, and he hopes to stage his subsequent trend present there come September, after sitting out final season.
For Magugu, it was essential to solidify his presence at residence with a view to finally taking over an extra function as artistic director for a luxurious home abroad.
He’s entertained affords, however stated all of them required him to shut his personal label, one thing he’s reluctant to do given the current rash of untimely departures of younger designers at storied homes.
“You’re similar to a commodity that may be taken on this season and thrown out the subsequent,” he stated.
“That’s why I feel it’s so essential that I construct this home that may maintain with or with out me, in order that after I do artistic direct some place else, which is one in every of my goals, after all, I’m nonetheless protected by the 4 partitions I constructed,” he added.
Magugu now has a workforce of eight, together with a manufacturing supervisor with 25 years of expertise. And his new HQ has its personal generator and borehole, that means it’s insured towards the electrical energy and water cuts which might be widespread in South Africa.
It’s given him the boldness to mission additional afield, with plans to finally open related places within the U.S., Europe and Asia.
“I like this concept of Thebe Magugu turning into actually one of many first African legacy manufacturers based mostly right here, however with legs everywhere in the world by Magugu Home and wherever it’d spring up subsequent,” he stated.