Orapeleng Modutle collaborates with Amarula

The South African fashion industry is a tough space to break into. The only thing harder than getting in is staying. Orapaleng Modutle seems to know that better than anyone. Today, you’ll know the designer or at least have seen his embellished, detailed gowns on the likes of Minnie Dlamini, Boity, Thuli Phongolo, Kefilwe Mabote and Thando Thabete just to name a few. Any time you’ve ever dropped your jaw at a Swarovski beaded ball gown or an origami sleeve on any of South Africa’s A-listers then it was probably an OM Style Avenue design.The designer got his start as an internet at Khensani Nkosi’s Stoned Cherrie where he learned the strength of a brand that can connect with consumers but also that surviving this industry isn’t always guaranteed.

 “This industry is difficult,” he tells The Throne. “You are always faced with challenges.” Modutle professes a deep felt love for fashion and clothing and that’s been his best aid in weathering the stormy waters. This love affair started in his youth where he grew up in a strong matriarchy with a mother who loved clothing and a grandmother doing needlework, often upcycling items into something new and beautiful.

 This love and the lessons learned from these strong women figures, be it his family or Khensani Nkosi helped motivate Modutle to start his business in his brother’s garage with R7000--enough to purchase a sewing machine, a steam iron and a push forward. Four years later, OM Style Avenue has over 52 thousand followers on Instagram and a thriving roster of clients. “Everything comes with hard work, of course, you can work hard but if you don’t put your love into it, it has a tendency of going a bit slower,” he says of his ability to reach such success in a short amount of time.

 Of course, while Modutle is grateful to social media for propelling his business, he’s always aware that overnight success isn’t sustainable. Passion and timing are great but they’re useless if you’re not prepared to do the hard work. In fact, it’s unseen hours of hard work that create the illusion of overnight success.

 “You make sure that each and every corner of the dress is tailored to perfection and once you get there it’s easy to impress women and from there it goes to word of mouth [and then social media].”

The hard work is very evident in Modutle’s work. His designs are time and labour intensive, filled with intricate beading, complicated construction and shape and they always manage to make each and every wearer look breathtaking. In the sweatpants-era, and as our changing world have pushed us into our homes and into more elasticated waistbands, it’s almost liberating to be reminded of sartorial decadence and extravagance. Modutle summarises it perfectly, “There’s just something about a girl in a perfect dress.”

 As a child, the girl in a perfect dress was Modutle’s favourite part of weddings. Modutle’s collaboration with Amarula as part of their #ALittleSomethingSomething campaign then becomes a marriage of African heritage and the avant garde with Mbali Mkhize as the ultimate bride.

 As expected, Modutle doesn’t hold back when it comes to celebrating and glorifying the female form. What really brings the little something something to this dress in particular is how its a culmination of the things we consider so typical of Africa such as  the sunset, landscapes and traditional beadwork with what we consider of atypical of the “traditionally” African to create something that’s both new but distinctly homegrown.

 “On the sleeves of the dress, we had these long beaded tassels that were created by hand by my beading ladies,” Modutle shares. After travelling across South Africa, Mozambique and Tanzania, Modutle was inspired by how women practicing traditional beading could turn inexpensive stones and glass beads into works of art that were luxurious. “We’re taking something that people would not expect and recreating it to something modern, elegant but still with a very strong voice.”

 This speaks to the ways in which the Western gaze often looks at Africa as poor and lacking when the wealth here just exists under a different eye. Beadwork takes on a spiritual form in Modutle’s use. Stones, glass beads and pearls all hold a deeper significance, be it their connection to the land, the labour of women, a complicated continental history and the ideas of luxury they carry now. There’s a quiet oracle in each bead that is carefully and loveling strung by the hands of African women for African women.

 Modutle combined the traditional past with the present and future when he was tapped to recreate Brenda Fassie’s iconic 1989 wedding dress for The Sowetan 40 x Netflix project.

“We tried looking for actual pictures of the dress and there’s only one on the Internet.” Modutle turned to Fassie’s 1997 Vuli Ndlela for inspiration, taking cues from the Xhosa beading and tassels from her stage costume. “We used modern pearls, glass beads and Swarovskis to recreate those tassels but this time on the dress.”

 Combining what is considered traditionally African with contemporary and modern materials and techniques can be seen as Modutle’s design ethos. Having travelled the African continent, he’s gathered inspiration from traditionally beading and craft and worked to transform into something representative of this new era in Africa. It’s important for Modutle to create a new African narrative, one that doesn’t easily fit into the stereotypical boxes prescribed by Western culture.

 Fashion doesn’t need to look African to be African, he explains. The spirit of Africa doesn’t have to rely on a stereotypical shweshwe print or style of head wrapping. Africa is a diverse, multicultural landscape and the little something something that makes Modutle’s work unique and captivating is how he can draw on Zulu, Xhosa and Tsonga craft and influence to create the uniform of the modern African woman. She’s a glamorous collage of tradition, history, innovation and opulence. 

 “South African fashion is changing,” Modutle says. He’s hopeful for the future, looking at how so many South African creatives of all industries are making their mark on the world. And the consumers are changing too. Social media has really allowed for people to connect in new ways and now it’s growing easier to explain to historically skeptical South African buyers the value and talent in local design.

For those of us who can’t yet get a ball gown, Modutle is gearing up to launch a ready-to-wear collection. “I’m going back to ready to wear because not everyone can consume couture and a lot of people would like to have a piece of the brand. I want to reach out to more South Africans who are in love with the OM story.”