Johannesburg is a city that likes to be seen. Its fashion calendar runs from the polished business of South African Fashion Week to the community energy of Soweto Fashion Week, and its designers now show in Paris and sell in New York. To understand how the city dresses, start with its runways, then look at the fabric and the knitwear that give South African style its signature.
A city of runways
South African Fashion Week presents its Autumn/Winter 2027 collections from October 20 to 25, 2026, at The Forum in Hyde Park Corner, according to the event’s official site.
Its spring/summer 2026 season, held March 22 to 25, gave a clear read on the city’s mood. The Post’s Karishma Dipa identified five runway trends: 1980s maximalism, with power shoulders, primary colors and dramatic accessories; chaotic layering, with clashing textures and unexpected pairings; puff and bubble silhouettes; dark chocolate brown, increasingly called the new black; and cinched waists, including in menswear.
A month later, the spotlight moved south. Time Out Johannesburg described Soweto Fashion Week’s autumn/winter 2026 edition, held April 29 to May 1 at Soweto Theatre in Jabulani, as the heartbeat to SA Fashion Week’s business-to-business polish, with 42 runway shows, streetwear labels and an on-site market where visitors could buy directly from designers. Its tip for visitors: get there early, because the street style outside the theatre is often as spectacular as the collections inside.
The knitwear house that went global
No label shows Johannesburg’s reach better than MaXhosa. Its founder, Laduma Ngxokolo, was born and raised in Port Elizabeth, heavily influenced by his Xhosa heritage, and launched the brand in 2010 after his collection on the colors of Xhosa culture won an international design competition in London. In 2019 he acquired a knitting factory in Johannesburg to produce locally.
The brand opened a boutique in SoHo, New York, in June 2024, News24 reported, and it now shows on the Paris calendar: the official schedule for Paris Fashion Week’s spring 2027 womenswear season listed Maxhosa Africa on its opening day, September 28, 2026.
How to wear it: a patterned knit is the statement. Wear it with plain tailoring or dark denim, and let the color and geometry do the talking.
A Johannesburg designer on the world stage
Thebe Magugu, born in Kimberley and based in Johannesburg, studied at LISOF in the city and founded his label there. In 2019 he won the LVMH Prize, becoming the first African designer to receive it. His collections have since been shown in Paris and London, and he has collaborated with brands including Dior and Adidas.
Shweshwe: South Africa’s everyday print
If Johannesburg has a signature cloth, it is shared with the whole region. Shweshwe is a printed cotton, originally dyed indigo, used for traditional Basotho clothing and widely worn across Southern Africa. Its name is associated with the Basotho king Moshoeshoe I, who was given the fabric by French missionaries in the 1840s. Its fine geometric patterns, traditionally made with a discharge printing technique, have led some to describe it as the denim, or tartan, of South Africa. Da Gama Textiles has manufactured it in the Eastern Cape since 1982.
Shweshwe is traditionally worn by newly married Xhosa women and married Sotho women, and today it appears in contemporary South African fashion for women and men alike.
How to wear it: treat shweshwe like denim. A shweshwe shirt with jeans, a skirt with a white tee, or a jacket over black is everyday wear, not costume. Look for the genuine cloth; its makers mark the reverse with a trademark, and the fabric starts out stiff before its starch washes out.
Johannesburg on your own street
- Layer with intent. Take the SS26 runway’s chaotic layering as permission: a waistcoat over a shirt over a knit, in three textures.
- Try chocolate brown. It works as a softer black for suits, knits and leather.
- Cinch it. A belt over a blazer or coat gives volume a shape, for any gender.
- Buy from the source. South African labels sell online and, in MaXhosa’s case, in New York. Supporting the makers is the most stylish way to wear their culture.
Johannesburg’s style is not one look. It is a conversation between heritage and the street, between the malls of the north and the theatre in Soweto, between a knitting factory in the city and a showroom in Paris. That is what makes it worth watching every season.
Read on: Africa’s fashion weeks and the designers to know and the history of wax print.
Find talent in the MOAM directory · Subscribe to The MOAM List · Follow MOAM on Instagram @moam_co and Facebook makingofamogul · Tips and corrections: hello@makingofamogul.com
Sources
- South African Fashion Week, official site (Autumn/Winter 27 collections dates and venue)
- The Post, Karishma Dipa, “SAFW SS26 trends: ‘80s maximalism and chocolate brown dominate the runway”
- Time Out Johannesburg, “The season of style: Soweto Fashion Week AW26 picks up the baton” (April 29, 2026)
- News24, “Grand opening extravaganza: Laduma Ngxokolo’s MaXhosa boutique debuts in NYC with 3-day celebration” (June 18, 2024)
- FHCM, Official calendar, Paris Fashion Week Womenswear SS27 (PDF)
- LVMH Prize, “Thebe Magugu, winner of the 2019 LVMH Prize”
- Wikipedia, “Laduma Ngxokolo” (secondary; biography and factory)
- Wikipedia, “Thebe Magugu” (secondary; biography and collaborations)
- Wikipedia, “Shweshwe” (secondary; history and production)
Photo: “Blue shweshwe” by HelenOnline, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Editor’s note: facts in this article were checked against the linked sources in October 2026. Runway trends are attributed to The Post; MOAM did not attend these shows.
Leave a Reply