South African Fashion Week SS25 (SAFW SS25) unfolded like a whispered revolution this April at The Forum, Hyde Park, Johannesburg. Over three days, 24 collections floated down the runways with an assured, almost conspiratorial elegance. “Quiet Luxury” was the official theme, but really, the guests elevated it with outfits that could not go under the radar.
Now in its 28th year, SAFW continues to assert itself as the continent’s sharpest fashion spectacle. Sponsored by Isuzu, Cruz Vodka, and L’Oréal Paris, the platform has long since evolved from a boutique showcase to a fully-fledged force, molding raw talent into retail-ready powerhouses. From New Talent Search winners to veterans, the message was clear: Africa’s future, stitched with care, is now.
Here are some of the collections that stayed stitched in my mind at SAFW SS25:
Gert-Johan Coetzee
When Gert-Johan Coetzee opens a show, you expect fireworks dressed in satin. What he delivered instead was a slow-burning spectacle titled The Arrival, Afro-futuristic pageantry with a heartbeat rooted deep in the soil.
The collection imagined a diaspora that didn’t just cross oceans but galaxies, carrying heritage like a tattoo under the skin. Models floated by in heavily patterned sculptural gowns, adorned with almost tribal geometric prints that felt simultaneously ancient and extraterrestrial. Every detail was precise, theatrical, but never costume. It was Coetzee doing what he does best: clothing icons for a world still being imagined.
By now, his accolades collaborations with Barbie, Disney, dressing Oprah, Cardi B, and various Miss Universes, read like a résumé printed on gold foil. But it’s his ability to tell African stories in a global language that keeps him orbiting far above the noise.
NGANO Design Africa
Tanaka Magirazi Vengere’s NGANO Design Africa collection felt like discovering a handwritten diary in a digital age.
Winner of the New Talent Search, Tanaka stitched together sustainability, transformation, and tactile storytelling into a series of pieces that refused to sit quietly. Deconstructed jackets, exaggerated silhouettes, and experimental textiles clashed and harmonized like a live jazz set. Every piece seemed to ask a different question about identity and reinvention.
With a background stretching from Zimbabwe to Italy to South Africa and a side hustle in veterinary science, no less, Tanaka treats fabric like a living organism. You could feel the pulse of African tradition and modern art beating under every stitch.
The BAM Collective
Masks. Architectural tailoring. Colour stories that buzzed like neon after dark. The BAM Collective didn’t just present a collection; they detonated one.
Demi-couture jackets with razor-edge cuts, fluid shapes sculpted from improbable fabrics it was a manifesto disguised as fashion. Bam’s visual language draws deep from South African cultural currents but surfs them toward a fearless, global future.
Already lauded at Paris, Milan, and Dubai runways, the BAM Collective knows how to hold a mirror up to Africa’s luxurious, complicated soul and make it look impossibly chic while doing it.
TADI wa NASHE
Tadiwanashe Karen Kaparipari’s TADI wa NASHE collection could have been a sermon, if sermons were stitched in silk and whispered through earthy palettes.
Inspired by the Biblical story of Deborah, her designs mapped the strength and grace of women onto flowing capes, intricate pleats, and subtly armoured silhouettes. She played deftly with texture, brushed cottons, raw silks, rough embroidery, giving the sense that every garment carried both history and prophecy.
These were pieces for the woman who knows she’s a force but doesn’t need to shout about it. Tadiwanashe may be new on the scene, but she’s already making a strong case for fashion as personal scripture.
Rubicon
Rubicon, under Hangwani Nengovhela’s skilled hand, brought a lesson in how to breathe fresh air into old-world glamour.
The collection was a whisper of sophistication with flowing dresses in misty blues, razor-sharp suiting softened by fluid fabrics, and detailing so subtle you only noticed it when the light hit just right. The patterns referenced Mapungubwe’s ancient royal lines, but Hangwani’s tailoring trained in China, honed in Africa, anchored the collection firmly in the now.
Rubicon’s strength lies in its restraint. No screaming logos here, just craftsmanship speaking in its mother tongue.
Naked Ape
Finally, Shaldon Kopman’s Naked Ape: a collection that felt like a walk across sacred land.
Shaldon’s eco-warrior ethos was stitched into earthy browns, dusty olives, and sand-washed linens. Pieces were functional, but far from utilitarian, think relaxed trousers that drape like desert robes, jackets cut with the precision of a ceremonial blade.
His “Ethi Ecos” mantra: Ethical, Ecological, Economical, wasn’t a marketing ploy. You could feel it in the hand-dyed fabrics, the biodegradable fibres, the slow fashion manifesto whispered through every seam. Naked Ape dresses the modern nomad who moves lightly but leaves an indelible print.
Final Reflections
South African Fashion Week SS25 slipped a note into our pockets stitched with quiet ambition, luminous craft, and a future far bigger than the runway. While the globe is still waking up to Africa’s creative force, SAFW was a softly spoken, deeply confident reminder:
we’ve already arrived.
