Categorising Lezanne Viviers is like trying to hear a whisper underwater – don’t waste your time. She’s a conceptual designer for whom classification is redundant and in fact, discouraged. In her world, the merger of art and fashion, sculpture, print-making and textile design is celebrated. Thus, her namesake label marries the duality of life, thrives on diversity and is in every essence aware of both the macro and micro. It’s an honor to dive into the mind of a creative person attuned to her inner intuition, a spiritual soul who is able to communicate this so effectively.
Her work is avant-garde yet references history, androgynous and genderless, and holds a promise to sustainable materials and practices. Her latest collection AW2025 (he)ART OFFICIAL prompted thought-provoking questions about the relationship between internal and external voices, which I had the privilege to ask in this Q&A. What was revealed in our conversation illuminated not the answers per se, but highlighted the importance of creating space for thought, time for rumination and deep curiosity.
Grace: Let’s start at the beginning, what led you to being an award-winning, artful-conceptual fashion designer?
Lezanne: My parents convinced me that it’s easier to have a career in fashion than it is to be a visual artist. After studying fashion in Stellenbosch, I moved to Johannesburg to experience a real South Africa, a city that is more representative of South Africa than Cape Town.
Eight years later, after working as the Creative Director at Marianne Fassler, I started my own brand. It was a pivotal moment because I had to figure out and communicate my own aesthetic. It meant asking myself, which part of what I’ve done is me versus which parts were me in dialogue with the brand? I went through a self-discovery moment figuring out what I actually have to say. How do I view fashion? I wanted the brand to be an umbrella space where I could explore sculpture, fashion photography, print-making, painting – an opportunity to hybridize the disciplines and bring them all together.
Grace: When I think about you and your work, the harmony yet abundance of it, the word ‘prolific’ comes to mind – you have a drive that is unmatched. Where would you say that forward-thinking momentum comes from?
Lezanne: Concept. How I start any new collection is writing and it’s always very personal. Asking questions like, how do I see the world? What do I think the world should be? Then, it’s putting together the teams. I’ve got a big team with 10 permanent people, including other designers; if you start with a strong concept, it’s quite easy to collaborate and communicate the bigger vision you would like to manifest. I think people often forget the importance of really spending time on that initial concept, the true meaning and intention behind a body of work, there you can easily collaborate with a variety of creatives and disciplines because every person will interpret that concept with a fresh eye and a personal, meaningful approach. The big question is always, ‘would I wear it?’
At the end, we all actually have the answers inside of ourselves. We tend to forget that and we don’t make enough time to be quiet and just allow your intuition to come through. You don’t need to sit for hours and look for inspiration. It comes at the most unexpected times. But we keep ourselves so distracted with our phones!
Grace: I’ve often felt that curiosity is one of the best qualities in a person, and you certainly have it in abundance. How would you encourage others to live a life with eyes open, not only observing but asking ‘why’?
Lezanne: How can you be alive and not ask questions? You’ll just be complacent. I think you’ll be dead. I’m forever digging. I’m a bit of an investigator of life, I suppose. The more you learn, the less you know, the more questions arise.
My collection concepts are always in line with my own spiritual journey, in terms of digging. What’s the truth? What have we been told about religion, societal conditionings and the 3D matrix of the holographic world we experience? Why are there certain rules and systems in place? Do I believe in them or not?
You can’t actually teach someone not to stagnate.
Grace: In light of your most recent collection (he)ART OFFICIAL, it references such a genuine attunement with one’s self and soul creativity. What has been a favorite or most noteworthy collection you’ve made to date?
Lezanne: If I look at each collection, I can almost literally see exactly where my head was and the emotions tied to my frame of mind. I won’t say there’s one that’s better or worse, but some of them are more fun, some of them I love because of the collaboration, others reflect challenges and some serve as answers or testaments to my questions. I’ve collaborated a lot with my soul sister, Marlene Steyn. We have a lot of fun together, we play like children; we are both mothers. Collaborations just add another unexpected ingredient to the pot.
Grace: What I would imagine is one of the most human or natural examples of creation is birth and motherhood, what is your relationship between creativity and motherhood?
Lezanne: Having a child encourages you to play completely in the present moment. You have to contribute to their imaginative games. You are painting, you are literally sitting in boxes that you made yourself. You have to be so honest. There’s no pretense when you’re playing with a child because they are so pure and in the moment, it’s not like you can sit and philosophise, the moment is instant. There’s a lot of spontaneity.
So, it’s fun to be a mom and I think it can be very creative if you allow it to be. Of course it’s also stressful at times. It’s the self-reflecting mirror that a child shines towards a parent… But it’s the creative play that actually reminds you of the small things in life and the constant questioning of the most mundane habits we have adopted as humans.
Grace: Capturing your collections through photography as well as exhibitions and showroom spaces seems like an important way to archive. This also completes a life cycle of the work in that it is honored, displayed and presented. Your Joburg Glasshouse Showroom, your Mutual Heights Apartment space, your collections from Confections x Collections, global Fashion Weeks are all extremely intentional.. How does it feel to see your work out in the world, living a life of its own?
Lezanne: In the end when you do the show or the presentation, that is when the concept comes to life. The story that you wrote, the questions that you asked, is now alive. You don’t necessarily know what it would look like visually when you write the concept, but here it is, alive and breathing.
Grace: Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about how people are so addicted to instant gratification. It makes it challenging to try to figure out how we can create a culture and broader society where things are more intentional, slower and longer-lasting. However, when it comes to slowing down there’s also a question of the luxury of time and having the luxury to slow down. My question to you is, what does luxury represent to you?
Lezanne: Human touch. Human nature. It takes time to educate your audience through challenging dialogues, especially in the fast fashion industry that exists. It takes time to explain to someone that a well-made dress takes at least 3 to 4 full days of someone working on it in our studio, compared to a pair of Levi jeans made in a factory in under 15 minutes.
I ask myself, ‘why do people not buy clothing with the same intention as when they are buying artworks?’ It’s something that you bring into your space. To me, energy is very important. So there’s a reason why fast fashion is bought and given away or sold or thrown away because the energy in the garment probably does not align with your soul.
Our experience of life is splitting into two kinds of very distinct directions: people that are more conscious, people who are drawn to things with positive meanings, serving communities and others and people who are frenzy-focused, hype culture-focussed and part of the disposable culture that is mostly driven by service to the self. It’s just two different approaches, each individual chooses that for themselves. I don’t think you should try and change them because you can’t change anyone and their soul contract.
Grace: You can’t force someone to open their eyes.
Lezanne: You can splash someone with cold water, you can plant little seeds, but at the end of the day, who’s going to keep watering the seeds?
Grace: Tell us a bit about NURU and the showroom taking place over the Investec Cape Town Art Fair period this February. Could you share a little about what this year might hold for you, more broadly?
Lezanne: Looking forward, I think it’s a pivotal year; the year of the snake. I follow astrology very closely and 2025 is a big year of completions and beginnings, the most pivotal year to date; the year of change All those things that you have been struggling with or have been carrying internally, throw them in the garbage, heal your inner child and clean your closet to open space for the new, fresh wave of creativity and flow, but, this requires silencing the mind from the chaos around you.
We’ve been in business for 5 years now and it feels like there’s a new phase emerging. That phase is also part of why we started NURU: it means more nice people, more collaboration, more community-driven collectives, more intention and more mutual respect
It’s about not trying to convert people but finding people who have the same approach to life and making more time for them. A big theme for me for this year is remembering that at the end of the day, you choose your own reality, you determine what makes you happy. No one else can do that for you. Less stress, more play. Change your mind, change your reality. You are the creator of your own experience.
In a world so driven by satiation and a bombardment of distractions, especially from one’s true self, it feels increasingly rare to encounter a creative like Lezanne – one who believes in community, one who could convince you to hear a whisper underwater.
NURU showroom will be taking place at Lezanne’s penthouse of Mutual Heights Building for a curated viewing experience of a collection of local sustainable designers – by appointment over the Investec Cape Town Art Fair (18-24 February).
Follow Lezanne Viviers on Instagram here
Visit Viviers Studio Website here
