LONDON — Sindiso Khumalo, the Cape Town-based sustainable textile designer, is ready to bring her punchy colours and retro designs to high streets worldwide through a collaboration with & Other Stories, WWD has learned.

The limited-edition collection of dresses, swimwear and accessories has been constructed from materials including organic cotton, recycled cotton and linen. It’s going to launch in April in chosen & Other Stories stores, and online. 

The prints, as at all times, are based on Khumalo’s hand-painted watercolors and collages, and inspired by the designer’s South African heritage. The sun-drenched images for the campaign have also been shot in South Africa. 

Khumalo said the start line for the gathering “was the materials themselves, and ensuring they were sourced in a more sustainable way.”

She added that her “hopes and needs are to shine a light-weight on African design, and the magical nature of our enigmatic continent. One other goal is to speak to the client the importance of the materials when constructing your wardrobe, showing that clothing constructed from materials sourced in a more sustainable way could be daring and playful. We wish to open up a sustainability conversation with more people.”

Karolina Ekman, Co-Lab manager, & Other Stories, said the retail brand has “a lot love” for Khumalo’s “evocative designs and storytelling about Africa. But we also admire the brand’s deal with sustainability and dedication to social equality and feminine empowerment.”

Khumalo studied architecture on the University of Cape Town before moving to London where she worked with David Adjaye. She later went on to check for a master’s in Design for Textile Futures at Central Saint Martins.

She founded her eponymous label in 2015, and commonly draws inspiration from her Zulu and Ndebele heritage, and her original home of Kwazulu Natal.

“Clothing generally is a form of medication. It will probably evoke emotions and make you’re feeling strong, alive and empowered. That’s what I need to bring to my designs, making women feel empowered, exceptional and unique. I like the concept of clothing embodying a component of excellent fortune if you buy them — be it within the print or the colour,” she has said.

In 2020, Khumalo was among the many eight finalists for the LVMH Prize for Young Designers. In that pandemic yr, LVMH temporarily transformed the prize into a solidarity fund for the emerging brands in its orbit. As an alternative of vying for a important prize of 300,000 euros, the eight finalists each received 40,000 euros.

Later that yr Khumalo scooped the Green Carpet Fashion Awards’ title of best independent designer.

Khumalo has spoken on sustainability in fashion on the United Nations and the European Development Forum.

She has also presented her designs at Milan Fashion Week and exhibited at places comparable to The Smithsonian Museum of African Art in Washington, the Louisiana Museum in Denmark and the Zeitz Mocaa Museum in Cape Town. 

With ateliers in Paris, Stockholm and Los Angeles, & Other Stories is a division of H&M Group. It has 70 physical stores in 24 markets including Europe, the U.S., the Middle East and Asia and offers online stores in 33 markets.