BANG Showbiz English
Thebe Magugu is collaborating with Dior for a charity project.
The South African designer has been tasked by Dior's creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri to create a new interpretation of Christian Dior's New Look – which caused a sensation back in 1947.
The task mirrors a second-year assignment he had as a fashion student in Johannesburg and is in aid of the Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project, a charity that aids young people in South Africa.
Magugu explained that he is honoured to be working with Dior and explained how the brand's fashion legacy has reached across Africa.
The 29-year-old designer said: “I'm from a small mining town called Kimberly, a place which sometimes is completely overlooked on certain maps. But even there people are very familiar with Christian Dior. It sort of revolutionised how women dress.”
Magugu also quipped: “It's like I completed my homework eight years ago.”
The designer made his jacket in red with “very small, rounded shoulders” and the skirt a swirling, full-circle style.
He has reimagined the New Look's cinched jacket as a cotton T-shirt, with straps included that allow the wearer to highlight the waist to a degree of their choice.
Magugu described the T-shirt as a “universally understood item” that is fronted by two females holding hands in a “powerful symbol of sisterhood”.
The designer revealed that the flaring skirt pays homage to the work of Chiuri.
He said: “At Dior, I've always loved when she's done the full-circle skirts. I've looked at those things forever.”
Magugu praised Chiuri for her interest in South Africa and for her attempts to create links with a new generation of fashion designers.
He said: “I think it's quite exciting seeing how two brands from such completely different heritages, histories and geographies come together to sit down and have a visual conversation.”
