South Africa is in the midst of a renaissance—an idea we discuss almost ad nauseam, not out of redundancy but necessity. It is critical to keep sharing, dissecting, and understanding this moment, because, as history tells us, all renaissances must eventually reach their peak—or at least plateau. And while I’ve never believed we were anywhere close to that point, I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t considered the inevitability of it. Isn’t that the nature of a golden age? A brilliance that exists in a particular time and space?
It’s not every day that a fashion brand arrives fully formed, articulating itself with clarity and conviction. The arrival of NTWANA on the scene has quickly dispelled any slight doubt in the future of our luxury fashion expression, and the Johannesburg-based brand co-founded by Mikhail Brown and Mmiso Luphondo, has stepped into this landscape with remarkable precision. Their debut is not scattered, not tentative, but is instead anchored in a single, tungsten-strong product: that ostrich trench. A statement of intent, an object of obsession, a piece that feels both distinctly South African and completely untethered from expectation, the brand might still be working out its philosophical machinations; but, oh boy, is the instinct geared up in full throttle. Further to this labour of love between the two friends, is its name, derived from ‘sho ntwana’; their deeply personal greeting and a phrase so quintessentially South African.
“NTWANA was really one of those moments where opportunity meets preparation—maybe even subconscious preparation,” Mikhail tells me. “I’ve always been someone who’s deeply into clothes, almost irrationally interested. Even when my friends or family weren’t, I just cared about how people wear clothes, why they wear them, and which clothes they choose.”
Episode collection by NTWANA, photographed by Paul Shiakallis
Episode collection by NTWANA, photographed by Paul Shiakallis
That kind of obsessive interest—the kind that persists even when it’s inconvenient, even when the world around you isn’t paying attention—is what ultimately shapes designers with vision, and yet, Mikhail didn’t always imagine himself in fashion. “I come from a generation where we told ourselves we were going to be bankers, lawyers, engineers. Chartered accounting was the big career move at the time, and I told myself that’s what I wanted to do. But deep down, I always just cared about clothes.” That contradiction—between what we tell ourselves is practical and what we are actually drawn to—feels particularly resonant in South Africa’s creative landscape. Fashion, in particular, is often dismissed as frivolous, an indulgence rather than an intellectual or cultural pursuit. For Mikhail, the weight of clothing transcends aesthetics. “I’ve always been obsessed with the psychology of clothes. Fashion is often dismissed as something frivolous, purely aesthetic. It’s psychological. It’s about identity, perception, and meaning.”
There’s an awareness in Mikhail’s words, a self-interrogation that suggests the subliminal sense behind, say, their ostrich trench, which had us all in chokehold: the brand decided on a singular thesis statement as an anchor for something bigger. The ostrich trench is the initial story— the prelude to the big bang, beckoning at NTWANA’s door.
Despite the polished nature with which NTWANA has introduced itself, Mikhail is quick to acknowledge that this is still a process of discovery. I ask about his design philosophy, to which he muses; “If I’m being honest, I’m still figuring so many things out. I was in class today—I’m still a student. When people ask about my design philosophy, it feels like a fashion magazine question. I listen to a lot of Business of Fashion, I have so many Vogue magazines, but I don’t know if I have a perfectly crafted answer for that yet.” This honesty feels rare, especially in fashion, a highly competitive landscape that often demands its designers arrive fully formed, with a manifesto in hand. Maybe, just maybe, the most interesting brands are the ones willing to admit they’re still in motion?
A single garment, no matter how striking, cannot sustain a brand forever. Mikhail understood this instinctively. Recently, NTWANA released ‘Episode’; its first collection, and a cohesive dissection of the original idea of the ostrich as the brand’s current fabrication focus. Mikhail notes, “‘Episode’ was a culmination of a few things. About a year after our coats first launched, they were received really well—like, really well. But I realised we needed to do something new. Otherwise, we’d be known only as ‘the coat brand.’ I could feel the buzz reaching a plateau, and I didn’t want that.” For a self-funded brand, the stakes are even higher. “We don’t have a financial backer, so I needed to create a collection that was strong but also financially viable. We had already sold in Paris, and our coats debuted in Berlin, so we knew the European market liked what we were doing. Even though we’re proud to be a South African brand, it made sense to focus deliberately on Europe because of our price point.”
This pragmatic approach speaks to Mikhail and Mmiso’s understanding of their moment; yet it doesn’t dilute the personal core of Episode. If anything, the collection is deeply autobiographical. “If you look at the collection, it’s very autumn/winter heavy. It was inspired by my life around 2018–2019—specifically, my nights and mornings from that time. I was a pretty hard partier, and all the bad and beautiful things that come with that lifestyle influenced the collection. It felt like I was living in a kind of Groundhog Day, where every night was a repeat of the last. That’s why I called it ‘Episode’—we used to joke, ‘Where are the cameras?’ because life felt like a never-ending series of episodes. It was life imitating art, imitating life.”
Episode collection by NTWANA, photographed by Paul Shiakallis
Episode collection by NTWANA, photographed by Paul Shiakallis
Episode as a collection isn’t interested in glossing over the reality of its foundational inspiration, “at that time, the junkies were very chic. I’ll just say it—they were the most stylish people in Joburg, and that’s what inspired Episode.” NTWANA’s broader ethos, then, is seemingly an unfiltered understanding of how the best style emerges from the streets and from the margins. There is no naivety here to Mikhail’s vision and life experience— instead, the brand’s guiding principle showcases an acute awareness of how beauty and destruction often exist in tandem, and how this is perhaps the juncture point from which all the wildest, most unbridled moments in design tend to occur from.
NTWANA didn’t begin with a business plan or a pitch deck. It wasn’t built in boardrooms or strategised for a market. It was born in grief, in instinct, and the co–founders unshakable pull toward something more. Mikhail and Mmiso started this brand during a difficult time, as Mikhail shares, “my mom had just passed away, and I was isolating myself. Mmiso was one of the few people who kept showing up—coming to my house every week, sometimes twice a week. At that point, I’d stopped partying and, as a result, wasn’t socialising much.” Fashion became a way for Mmiso to help shift Mikhail’s grieving process, “we were both obsessed with fashion—especially Balenciaga at the time—and Mmiso kept telling me about this fabric store. He’d seen Thebe (Magugu) and Nao (Serati) there and kept pushing me to go. He’d already been making suits for himself, and eventually, he convinced me to come with him. That’s when I found the material. I wasn’t even thinking about starting a brand—I just wanted to make a really cool coat.”
Leather trenches were everywhere at the time, but this had to be different. “When I saw the fabric, I knew I had to make a trench coat, but I needed it to exist in a completely different dimension. Thebe had done a pink ostrich coat—I think it’s in the Zeitz MOCAA archives now—and exotic leather was definitely having a moment. I was about to go to Berlin, and I had to get into Berghain. I just knew—this coat was going to get me in.” Berghain, Berlin’s most infamous nightclub, is as much a cultural institution as it is a fortress of hedonism—its elusive door policy and almost mythological aura making it the holy grail of nightlife for the city, and the first part of the battle is its notorious dismissal of attendees based on ‘vibe’ and ‘appearance’. “Even though there was a heatwave, I insisted on wearing it. I wore it to Berghain, and it shut Berghain down. It absolutely killed. The crowd—six-foot South Korean girls in Jean Paul Gaultier durags and Ottolinger—but my coat still stole the show. People kept asking me about it, and the response was purely about the piece.”
That’s when Mikhail knew they were onto something. No marketing, no hype—just a coat that spoke for itself, that was self-pronouncing and explicit, “the coat started making the rounds, people were wearing it, and we didn’t even have an Instagram profile picture. Still, we gained thousands of followers. We hadn’t registered a company yet—I was still in school—but I knew I had to keep up with it. The momentum was insane, and the international response was immediate.”
Success doesn’t come without its pressures, particularly with Mikhail going back to school to study fashion so he could give NTWANA the best chance possible to flourish. “Fashion school is not cheap. Life isn’t cheap. Running a fashion brand is not cheap. So it’s a lot of pressure, a lot of pressure. But at the same time, it is so rewarding. Whenever I recommit myself to Ntwana, it commits to me. It helps me. We only went through our first financial year at the end of last year. Infancy is an understatement—we are embryonic.”
The South African fashion landscape is shifting and as we both point out, NTWANA stands on the shoulders of giants now. It’s the likes of Lukhanyo Mdingi, Thebe Magugu, Wanda Lephoto and more, who have opened the door for Mikhail and Mmiso to even conceive of NTWANA as a potential leader in the next wave. “I feel like there needs to be a generational shift. We have the greats—Thebe, Lukhanyo, Wanda. It’s time for the next phase of South African fashion. Just like how, after Dior, there was Saint Laurent—that is what’s happening in South Africa. Especially in Joburg, we are having a renaissance. This is Paris in the 1920s. The time is now, we are in the thick of it.”
NTWANA’S vision is that expansion is inevitable. Mikhail is still in his third year of school, and “we want to extend the ‘Episode’ range to more summer pieces. We had heat waves at the end of last year, and we just didn’t have a horse in the race. I’m working on a deluxe edition of NTWANA with very talented collaborators. I already have the first three or four collections written down. I’ve started researching them. It’s just about preparing and meeting opportunities so we can really expand our universe, and properly flesh out the characters and themes. ‘Episode’ was just a glimpse into a small moment of a larger narrative.”
“We have interest from the U.S., which I never expected. That market is daunting, and the political climate is crazy. But we’re taking things one step at a time. There’s a universe we want to expand.” And if NTWANA’s trajectory so far is anything to go by, that universe is multi-dimensional, and the next chapter for NTWANA is being written in real time. As Mikhail balances school, design, and the realities of running an independent brand, the trajectory is both uncertain and inevitable; with the precision of NTWANA’s debut and the depth of its storytelling suggest a label with so, so much more to say.
Perhaps that is what our renaissance requires to maintain its momentum; for designers to continue insisting that South African fashion belong at its helm.
Written by Holly Beaton
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