- Queendom stars seasoned actors like Sindi Dlathu, Dawn Thandeka King, Linda Mtoba, Hamilton Dlamini and more.
- The wardrobe and makeup of BET's upcoming daily drama explores themes of cultural heritage and power struggles.
- Phindile kaZwane Mlambo drew inspiration from Cleopatra and Esther Mahlangu for the wardrobe.
- For makeup, Mmabatho Malinda drew from the tribal markings of different African tribes.
It’s a queen’s world, everyone else is just living in it.
Authentic African royalty is reimagined with BET’s latest daily drama series Queendom. The show features an all-star cast including Linda Mtoba, Sindi Dlathu, Dawn Thandeka King, Nhlanhla Kunene and more.
The story presents the life of Linda Mtoba’s character Nthandokayise Mthombeni, a maverick community leader in Tsakane, Ekurhuleni, who discovers that she is the rightful heir to the throne of the Khahlamba Kingdom.
Sindi Dlathu plays Tholakele Mthombeni, Nthandokayise’s mother, and her regalness and powerful aura lend itself perfectly to such a story.
The awe of South African royalty can only be truly seen through the elaborate and divine wardrobe and makeup that bring each character to life.
Phindile kaZwane Mlambo and Mmabatho Malinda are the women at the helm of the Queendom’s wardrobe and makeup respectively and they share with TRUELOVE the creative processes behind the looks.
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Unimaginable queendom through wardrobe
Phindile’s maternal side of her family, her Zwane heritage, played a large role in her creativity – an apt fit for being tasked with the opportunity to style the powerful matriarchs in this series.
Explaining the research behind the looks, Phindile says, “Basically from the briefs, from the story meetings, from my presentation and the brief from my producers and the client was create your own queendom … We are aiming to represent all tribes, that is the aim.
“You will see the touch of most tribes in our garments but with our own unique creative style. So, now, in a way we are creating those tribes in the unique style so that they can give us the queendom we are hoping for and our own different queendom.”
Phindile’s team drew inspiration from powerful women figures like Esther Mahlangu, Cleopatra and Princess Charlotte for Dawn Thandeka King’s character MaNdlovu’s reigning look.
With only a week until filming began for the show after receiving the briefs from producers and putting together her presentation, Phindile and her team were able to craft the wardrobe that fit with Queendom’s themes of cultural heritage, tradition, fate, ancestry, power struggles, identity and survival in an astounding four days.
“Putting the looks together was challenging as we really didn’t have enough time,” she says. “So, in [cases] like this, like not having time, I’ll go back to my presentation, go back to producers’ notes, go back to client’s notes and visualise the world of the story. And then I then make sure that we create the hero’s looks ourselves.”
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Enhancing African elegance with makeup
Mmabatho and her team tapped into the world of Queendom by using one of the show’s motifs, water. They also got feedback from hair director Andries Van Der Merwe to achieve a contemporary look that is still reminiscent of Africa’s past empires.
She explains to us the research that went into and is still going into the makeup looks for the series.
“We researched different African cultures, looked around then we had to find a merge to reflect the culture tapping into obviously an aspirational world. Kind of like a fantasy world, making provision for our audience to also be able to dream and to relate. My team and I played around with tribal face paint especially, and symbolism around the theme wamanzi, I would say.”
Opening themselves to look outside of the box and mixing a range of different colours transformed the thespians into the realm of Queendom.
Working with such a stellar cast of actors that she grew up watching, Mmabatho felt honoured to get the opportunity to craft diverse looks for each character.
“When you sit down with an actor and you just discuss the journey in terms of looks and what they’re going to go through, and it’s how willing and professional they are. uMdu had to go through this huge transition and it’s how he was just okay with it and he was like, ‘You do your job, let me know what can I do to make it better for you’.”
