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We're celebrating Palesa Mokubung's Mantsho as they make fashion history as the first African label to collaborate with the H&M brand

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An item from the Mantsho x H&M collection
An item from the Mantsho x H&M collection

South African fashion label, Mantsho, joins Moschino, Balmain and Versace as the latest brand to collaborate with H&M. Mantsho is the first African fashion label to collaborate with the Swedish retail giant.

Mantsho is known for its statement designs including bold prints and elaborate silhouettes. H&M says the label’s “vibrant fabrics, bold and edgy designs” will introduce “fresh, fun and uniquely South African aesthetic” to H&M.

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Palesa Mokubung, the founder and designer at Mantsho, announced her excitement to be collaborating with H&M.

Pernilla Wohlfahrt, assortment manager for collaborations and special collections at H&M, says: "Palesa is such an inspiring talent and personality. We love how she works with colour, print and silhouettes enhancing the female shape in a flattering and playful way.”

“At the core of my inspiration it’s always a woman, a type of woman. So that’s what this collaboration is about women, women, women. But I put a lot of thought into textiles and fabrics because that is what I’m known for, I transformed fabric and I created my own prints to form these looks for this kind of woman,” says Palesa.

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She adds: “The inspiration is the woman but this woman informs everything else. She informs the kind of styles that I chose, the fabrics that I chose and I’ve dressed some of the leading ladies in South Africa – your Thandiswa Mazwai, Simpiwe Dana, Nomzamo Mbatha, Minnie Dlamini, everybody, you name it. She confident, she smart, she’s classy, she’s a go-getter, she’s a ground-breaker, she is inspiring, a modern African woman.

The collection promises a combination of vibrant and neutral colours for 14 looks and 10 accessories.

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Palesa says she is honoured to be selected in collaborating with H&M. “It means for the first time one of our own is going to be [on] a platform to show the world what we can do with support from a huge machine, a giant such as H&M – so it is the perfect collaboration.

“We’ve had people in the past who come in and just take from Africa and tell the story as if it’s theirs. For H&M to ask me to do that on behalf of all of us is such an honour, honestly.”

The collection is expected to hit stores on 15 August, it will be available nationwide and at selected flagship stores in the U.S, the UK, France, Spain, Portugal, The Netherlands, Belgium, Mexico, Chile among others.

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