There’s a secret in fashion that all the best brands – led by the best designers – weren’t fashion designers to begin with. Virgil Abloh was an architect, Raf Simons was an industrial designer and furniture maker (until he came across Martin Margiela’s work, which changed everything) and Miuccia Prada was building a career in political science before she took over her family business – the rest, as they say, is history. There’s something incredibly potent about the work of fashion designers when the pursuit of the medium is born from an alternate point of view, and the evidence suggests that a truly rich and dynamic fashion design approach is the consequence of so much outside of the actual clothing: the clothing becomes the manifestation of a deeper searching and understanding of the world. 

Sakhile ‘Sash’ Cebekhulu’s creative journey has been a tense interplay between his path as a visual artist, and his deep love for fashion. His brand SASH South Africa has been murmuring on the scene since 2016, predated by his career as an accomplished artist and painter – and it’s been three years since Sakhile made the commitment to focus on SASH full time, as its designer, creative director and founder. Simultaneous to this, Sakhile is a part of UNKNWNPROJCTS – an ongoing research project with some of his friends, that focuses on upcycling in the South African context for a more sustainable fashion future. As a son of Joburg, Sakhile’s design approach is a constant homage to the country of his heart, with storytelling as his primary tool (alongside his hard-won technical ability, forged at the University of Johannesburg as a fashion design graduate). I spoke to Sakhile as SASH’s latest collection, Phola Park ‘Sunday Best’ is released, a secondary addition to the major success of Phola Park that dropped in March, featuring in-house design mesh textile, showcasing Black families in an oil-painted scene. As Sakhile details, this notion of the African renaissance is the heartline of his work – whether as an artist, a fashion designer or a storyteller. 

On his origin, Sakhile shares that, “I was pretty good at visual arts in high school. So, when it came time to register for varsity – it was obvious that I would pursue something in visual arts. I had this interest in clothing and fashion at the same time, and I ended up doing fashion design at the University of Johannesburg,” Sakhile found the medium challenging, and “the technicalities of those first six months were difficult, and it was the guidance of a lecturer after my first semester that I really became immersed in the degree. All while I’m studying, I’m still in love with visual arts and practising on the side — painting at night, seeing my friends in the arts department.”

Sakhile is the kind of artist for whom his own agency in the work is priority. Though an avid and lifelong learner, the confines of a degree and its singular focus led to a kind of separation between him and fashion as a chosen medium, “when I graduated, because I’d had such a hard time studying, I was sick of fashion! I think the rigidity of school can sometimes challenge our love for a subject. So instead of going straight into fashion, I actually began practising as a visual artist almost full time. I was still making clothes on the side. I’d make a few pieces to sell, to help me buy my art supplies.”

“It was a real tug of war between art and fashion in my early career. I was always bouncing between the two. Visual arts was my first love that introduced to me this whole creative world,” notes Sakhile, as he explains that his career as an artist took off, “My visual arts career got quite serious. I was doing shows, locally and internationally, and even though it was my main focus — I’d make myself an outfit for a showing opening. I was kind of in the middle of these two spaces, where people who knew my art didn’t realise my background in fashion — and vice versa.”

The dichotomy of Sakhile’s Jozi studio expressed his dualism as a creative – an art studio, split down the middle, with canvas on one side and a sewing machine on the other. It was in this space that Sakhile returned to fashion, though he never really had a desire to start a ‘brand’ – perhaps this is due to his artistic instincts, an in-born reluctance to commodify his creativity. In today’s landscape, artists are required to be their own kind of brand – but the idea of formalising his creative expression into an entity of its own, that needed to operate as a brand (marketing and selling, logistics and production), was never the goal – and it was only when Sakhile unlocked the storytelling potential of fashion as a medium, did his concerns fall away. SASH South Africa was born. Sakhile reminisces, “SASH was lightly started in 2016. I had no real interest yet in starting a clothing brand, but I had this deep love of fashion and making clothes. Every time I’d leave, it would always find me. Then in 2017, I got an opportunity to showcase at Mercedes-Benz SA Fashion Week — and I realised maybe this was worth pursuing, that there might be something in this?”

“My first collection in 2017 for fashion week was really exciting. I’d always been interested in the concept of installations instead of the traditional runway show. SASH was always this avenue through which I felt I could tell South African stories through clothing. So, my whole show was this scene of a taxi rank. When I pitched it, they thought it was crazy. But they let me do it, if I could organise it myself. We brought a taxi out onto the runway. It was wild.” shares Sakhile, and then, “I dropped ‘Bantu Space Odyssey’ which was inspired by a song, made by a friend of mine. That collection explored sci-fi and afro-futurism, through this fictional character ‘Bantu’ and a future in which Africa is the leading global power in the world, and he’s travelled to space to fight this warlord who is threatening the peace on earth. I treat each collection as its own story entirely —and I find my design process flows if I have a narrative or world built around the collection, so the garments are part of the story. I never feel confined to have all the collections be connected to each other rather than that each of them expresses a story or narrative that I’m interested in at that moment in time.”

In 2018 Sakhile was awarded at Design Indaba, and headed to Paris for shows at a gallery and to participate in AKAA ‘Also Known As Africa’ Art & Design Fair – but fashion was beckoning, and having his heart split into two became notable,  “I think 2021 was the year that I was able to reconcile the fact that I wanted to do just one thing, between fashion and art. I was so drained and I knew I wanted to step back from art. I had never really given SASH the kind of chance that I knew it deserved; part of which was my full attention. I will always revisit art throughout my life, whereas fashion is a young man’s game, you know?”

I ask Sakhile what his initial thought was behind focusing on SASH – what was the motivation? To which he says, “we’re in the city, we observe things and consume things constantly — and I always want to figure out how we can also challenge things, and take ownership of our stories and experiences in a creative way, and I wanted to know how fashion could achieve this. Since I’ve been back, I’ve been focused on the strategy and business aspect of the brand. I take longer in my process to work on collections because I’m so research focused, and finding ways to do textile development.”

SASH South Africa has been a steady study in wearability, in a ready to wear context – and Phola Park (part one) launched in March, is built from a story that Sakhile has been writing for some years. It is a love letter – more than anything else – to the community, “Phola Park is this place where we will all go for healing and tranquillity, and all the people we love are there. I’d started writing about it before COVID, this beautiful place to connect and be with others, and after COVID – it felt more pertinent than ever. Everybody is dressed beautifully, in their Sunday best, and it has turned out to be a multiple part collection series. We’ve just dropped the second collection, which is a follow-up. My favourite day of the week is a Sunday and the collection explorers elevated ideas around what we did for the first Phola Park drop. I’ve tapped into my tailoring background, too.”

As an exploration of tailoring and contemporary cuts, Phola Park ‘Sunday Best’ is brimming with nostalgia – and its pieces are elegant yet carefree – with tartan suits and eyelet lace dresses, pink tailored sets for him and her – sharp tailoring across the board, and Sakhile’s most technically ambitious collection eyet. Encoded with emotion, as though you’ve seen old photographs of family members and realised their sartorial and spiritual influence on the person you are today, Sakhile clarifies that “Sunday’s are family days and people in South Africa dress up; there’s something nostalgic about Sundays. Whether it’s the memory of coming from church, to now meeting friends for lunch before the week ahead – Phola Park is about dressing up with the people you love.”

I ask Sakhile how he feels about this moment in South African design, to which he shares that “I’ve had the opportunity to travel, and yet I’m always reminded about what a unique place South Africa is. We are so layered here and there are just so many stories, from so many points of view — and we can’t overlook them. As South Africans, we are connected to each other beyond any of our divisions. I truly believe that. I even changed the name from SASH to SASH South Africa, because I want it to always be about South Africa — I want anyone who comes across the brand to know the brand’s origin instantly. It’s so important for me, and I’m a patriot of the country. Our nation is beautiful. There’s no place like South Africa,” and that from a specifically fashion design perspective, “I am really excited about this era of ready-to-wear that designers are doing in the country. We’re a new breed of designers who are making clothes that people can access and wear on a daily basis, and we’re breaking democratising fashion in so many ways. We’re almost the first to do what we’re doing – from luxury, to streetwear and so on. And storytelling seems to be intrinsic to the way fashion is being created in South Africa. It’s very exciting and very new.”

Lastly, Sakhile shares his wisdom of navigating brand-building while staying true to his creative freedom; and the constant task he has set himself to redefine his perspective and mediums, as he intuitively feels guided to, “I believe in organic growth. I’ve tried to work it as it goes with the brand, and move slowly but effectively through the years. I’ve never wanted SASH to overextend itself. I’ll be a student forever. I hope that no matter what I do, that I’m always learning and unpacking whatever I can – even if it’s difficult or frustrating. I think we’re in a powerful time where fashion is becoming a beautiful community where I know I can call on designers and friends, and we all have each other’s backs.” 

Phola Park ‘Sunday Best’ is a culmination of many years as a designer and storyteller and our conversation revealed Sakhile’s profound affection for South African – I can think of no greater artistic task, than to create art that is wearable, accessible and South African. Viva. 

Pre-order Phola Park ‘Sunday Best’ HERE

Written by: Holly Beaton

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