ABOUT

Born and bred in, Mthatha, in the Eastern Cape, Thandazani studied at St Johns College before going on to the Nelson Mandela University for Textile Design. He is currently working as textile design consultant under CHAP Studios whilst building his ABANTU by Thandazani luxury brand. Under his consultancy, Thandazani worked on award winning collaborative projects like “Amalaphu Obulumnko” with Today Brand Studios, a project that reimagined and reinterpreted Nelson Mandela University’s seven Xhosa written doctoral thesis into textile printed “doek”/iqhiya. Accolades for this project included three Pendoring Awards, and two Mace Excellence Awards. Feeling the need to learn more and to challenge his critical thinking around subjects he was already interested in, Thandazani went back to university for his Honours Degree, in 2019. He says that he is intentional about telling the South African Xhosa culture nuances to the world.

Collections like SITHI ABA, which dealt with identity and belonging in the diaspora, placed him as one of the 40 Emerging Creatives at Design Indaba, and one of ten hottest young designers in the Nandos Surface Print Competition. Ever since his monumental achievement of winning a student competition by Mohair South Africa, knitting and working with fibres has been his main specialty when making clothing. He is currently the principal creative textile collaborator for IVILI Loboya, the first African cashmere plant in Africa.

COMPANY INFORMATION

EMAIL: chapcreatives@gmail.com

CONTACT: +27 76 136 1127

INSTAGRAM: @abantuinafrica

FACEBOOK: ABANTU