Fashionistas! Get ready for the launch of the South African Fashion Week’s 2025
South African Fashion Week’s Spring/Summer ’25 edition will shine from April 24–26, 2025 at The Forum Hyde Park in Johannesburg, with seven runway shows and 24 collections from visionaries and new talent. Spring Summer ’25 collections will merge minimalist silhouettes with statement African prints and revolutionary eco-fabrics, fusing heritage craft with cutting-edge design. Alumni stars Rich Mnisi and Thebe Magugu will be back, both with fluid shapes and heavily textured nuances that nod to their heritage while pushing the boundaries of global style. With @safashionweek already dropping “quiet luxury” capsules and hand-worked details on Instagram Stories, fans can look forward to a banquet of minimalist cool interspersed with cultural buzz.
A Runway Laboratory
When the lights come up on The Forum Hyde Park and the initial model emerges onto the catwalk, the South African Fashion Week ’25 runway will be a playground of sculptural restraint and hand-made subtlety. Designers will pare back to basics to focus the eye on streamlined shapes—columnar coats, basin-hem trousers, and stripped-back suiting—yet each look has an intriguing twist: geometric beadwork, laser-cut appliqué, or tone-on-tone Shweshwe impressions that pay homage to South Africa’s rich textile heritage. Between measured drumbeats and silence hush-worthy, there will be moments of cultural celebration shattering the stillness so that every collection will be both meditative and electric.
In the background, seamstresses will be sewing contrasts together—attaching fine satin paneling to earthy jute trims or fixing flying silk sarongs to architectural coats—proving that craftsmanship and sustainability are two sides of one coin.
VIPs and media will sit forward while show notes guarantee zero-waste draping sessions and plant-dyed pop-ups, turning each runway stop into a multi-sensory trip into Africa’s next-gen fashion world.
Minimalism Meets Heritage
At the heart of Spring Summer ’25 is a “less is more” party, yet every piece murmurs softly of place and origin. Thebe Magugu—fresh from his Spring Summer ’25 “Reparations” show in Paris—will certainly be doubling down on his own signature manner of flowing crepe separates sewn in bead motif-inspired reminiscent of ancestor-driven prints, blending modern minimalism with cultural gravitas. Especially one of his standout designs adorned by the Queen of Kuwait. Meanwhile, Rich Mnisi—whose recent campaigns celebrate his Tsonga heritage through vibrant prints and fearless silhouettes—will bring his Republic of RICH MNISI ethos to the catwalk, daring us to see fashion as both a personal manifesto and communal narrative.
Spotlight on Alumni
Thebe Magugu
Thebe Magugu, LVMH Prize laureate and regular at Paris Fashion Week, has set out to tell us through clothing, frequently borrowing our shared history and turning it into fashion. At Spring Summer ’25, insiders forecast that he will introduce a stretch crepe and sculpted suiting collection punctuated by beadwork references to Zulu and Ndebele decorations—tributes to matriarchal wit inscribed upon cloth.
A Catalogue of Thebe Magugu Designs
RICH MNISI
Rich Mnisi, having recently concluded dominating Shanghai to London catwalks, has spent 10 years crafting a vision for South African futurism that combines Tsonga weaves and urban cool into tiered silhouettes evoking strength and cultural pride. His Autumn Winter ’25 line features hand-weaved trims, metallic detail, and modular components that are meant to be mixed and matched into narrative on and off the runway.
A Catalogue of RICH MNISI Designs
Together, their anticipated capsules promise a harmonious dialogue: Magugu’s contemplative elegance counterpointed by Mnisi’s bold statements, proving that minimalism need not be monochrome, and tradition need not be static.
Impressed much?! Sure but this is just a taste of what’s to come at the South African Fashion Week’s 2025 from our sophisticated African designers as others too will showcase their works. African fashion will be on full display and the runway will be littered with designs sure to steal your gaze.
Sustainable Fabrics in the Future
Sustainability is not an afterthought—it’s in the DNA of South African Fashion Week ’25, with a number of labels going for zero-waste draping, vegetable coloring, and biodegradable yarns.
Other acts to follow Tiger Blue and Naked Ape official will look to be on the Runway with their various collections and a history of other dazzling designs that you’ll be sure to fall in love with.
Instagram Teasers: Quiet Luxury
Already, @safashionweek’s Instagram buzzes with capsule teases: dove gray slip dresses trimmed in ochre, whisper-thin satin lapelled obsidian blazers, and midday-sun yellow scarves knotted up over the head in honor of headwrap heritage. Every Story dissolves on a hush emoji—????—underscoring this season’s mantra of understated luxury, where elegant restraint and meticulous attention to detail are louder than showy logos.
