South African fashion brand, Rich Mnisi has released its latest collection titled Nwa-Mulamula which means looking for mother. According to the designer, he drew his artistic inspiration from the love, bravery and strength of mothers.
Rich Mnisi believes that his mother is a sacred, powerful and spiritual component of his being – so, although she rests as a guardian in an ancestral realm, her spirit, lessons and sacrifices have defied temporal limitations and this is why their Trans-seasonal ’18 lookbook explores the ancestral realm looking for her love in a collection that features eleven looks for men and women.
According to a statement from the brand,
“Mothers are the cornerstone of African family structures. From generation to generation, mothers are revered to be fierce protectors, like a lioness to her cubs. They birth nations and carry the burdens of the world on their shoulders. They are the supreme representation of love, bravery and strength. They are the ones known to hold a knife’s edge at the sharpest point. Their fortitude and personality traits are reincarnated through their children, their children’s children and lineage of loved ones who are likened to them.
They are the timeless teachers of life and custodians of a centre of family rituals, customs and knowledge. When they cross over to live among the stars that overlook their own, their memory remains only in word; preserved through endearing stories told around a living room. Thus our matriarchs have continuously been erased or underrepresented in the patriarchal centre of memory and in the androcentric etymology of words that shape culture like “history” – from the Greek word history – meaning old wise man.
My ethereal connection to her manifests in the form of where I draw inspiration. NWA-MULAMULA is my artistic muse. As the centre of my current inspiration, her story is a universal story of keeping the memory alive. She is a symbolic representation of African mothers in all their glory that has been lost in time, undocumented and buried in the depths of our hearts”.
A look at the collection…
NWA-MULAMULA | Lookbook
Creative Team
Designer: Rich Mnisi | @rich_mnisi
Director/Photographer: Ricardo Simal | @ricardosimal
Videographer: Ross Hillier
Video Assistant: Nick Burton-Moore | @lightnin_bertman
Makeup Artist: Nandi | @nandikai
Prosthetic Artist: Ashley Powell | @ashley_alexander_powell
Model: Anyon Asola | @anyonasola, Dylan Wentzel | @dylanwentzel315
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