A 26-year-old South African designer has become the first African to win the LVMH Prize, a prestigious award for young fashion designers that was launched in 2013.
Thebe Magugu beat more than 1,700 other applicants to the 300,000 euros ($331,272; £269,887) prize money and will also receive a year’s mentoring by the luxury goods company.
Judges praised Magugu for the “originality of his use of cut, colour and materials”, “the innate femininity of his easy-to-wear pieces”, and his incorporation of “the South African story”.
The Johannesburg-based designer of women’s wear said that his Spring-Summer 2018 collection, called Home Economics, “explored the condition of the female force in South Africa”.
More recent collections Art History and African Studies also referenced questions of culture and politics. Here are some of those pieces:
