When South Africa\u2019s fashion wunderkind Thebe Magugu first opened the mystery crate from Rome containing Pierpaolo Piccioli\u2019s Valentino haute couture garment, he recognised it at once as the dress that Tracee Ellis Ross wore to grace the 2018 Emmy Awards. This was the garment chosen by Piccioli that Magugu would be tasked with reimagining as the second chapter of US Vogue\u2019s dress-swap initiative (see last September\u2019s issue for what Tomo Koizumi and Maison Margiela\u2019s John Galliano came up with): two designers working their individual alchemy to transform a fellow creator\u2019s work. For Piccioli, the project has special resonance. \u201cI love the idea of reinterpreting,\u201d he explains, \u201cbut I love even more the idea of creating a moment
\nbetween two identities, two cultures\u2014this conversation creates a new energy.<\/p>\n
In Magugu\u2019s Johannesburg studio, conversation began with the miracle of Piccioli\u2019s full-bloom fuchsia-pink ball gown, which soon revealed itself to be buoyed by underskirts of filmy net and
\nstiff crin, erupting in puff -ball ruffles at the bodice and elaborately pinch-pleated into a tiny waist. Small wonder that Ross later declared that her appearance in it was \u201cwhat you call a fashion moment… I have never felt prettier in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Magugu\u2019s first instinct was to try the dress on, \u201cwhich I immediately regretted\u2014it was a very harsh reminder that I\u2019m no longer sample-sized,\u201d he says, playfully. Laying it on a cutting table but then dressing it on a mannequin instead, Magugu was \u201creally arrested by its beauty. There are a few lessons that I can take from Pierpaolo\u2019s career and work: his dedication to women, and celebrating them; and the idea of family\u2014that\u2019s the same thing with me. I always feel revitalised and reinvigorated when I get to go back home to Kimberley [his hometown in South Africa] and interact with my mum, my uncles, my aunts, because it powers my work in a lot of ways. There\u2019s something so joyful and freeing about Pierpaolo\u2019s work, and it\u2019s something we need now more than ever.<\/p>\n
\u201dThis opportunity to examine an haute couture garment up close also helped him to understand and appreciate for the first time \u201cthe level of work and craftsmanship that has gone into this\u2014it really is a work of art.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, he wanted to move this masterwork \u201cinto my context, and my way of working\u2014to translate this really special piece into something that a lot of people could wear and see themselves in.\u201d This would involve, as Magugu notes, \u201cessentially deconstructing the dress and restitching it, almost Frankenstein-like, into a very elevated trench coat from my universe.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added industrial topstitching but baulked at unpicking the pleats (\u201cI was going to just get struck down by lightning!\u201d), instead using their volume to create leg-of-mutton sleeves \u201cpoofed
\nup, almost like a Victorian shirt.\u201d Magugu also decided to use every element of the original garment, from the zipper to the underskirts, which he transformed into wide-leg pants and a blouse. Researching the 17th- and 18th-century paintings that were Piccioli\u2019s original inspirations for the collection, Magugu pondered \u201cwhat this meant to us in an African context\u201d and thought of Queen Nandi Bhebhe, mother of Shaka Zulu, who founded the Zulu Kingdom in 1816. Using more of the petticoat\u2019s crin to create a hieratic hat, Magugu likens the piece to a Nefertiti headdress.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, in Rome, Piccioli and his team unpacked Magugu\u2019s almond-green pantsuit. \u201cI saw the color and the pattern of the fabric,\u201d Piccioli recalls, \u201cbut the thing that impacted me the most was this letter that Thebe sent me. He said something that was very moving: that he is from the Sotho [ethnic group] and that \u2018blankets are a very big part of our culture.\u2019 \u201d Those boldly patterned blankets, mimicked as a jacquard in Magugu\u2019s ensemble, are worn as capes for important ceremonies and rites of passage, from birth and marriage to the coronation of
\nkings. \u201cI thought, Th ebe has something to say,\u201d says Piccioli. \u201cHe\u2019s trying to get his heritage into the world of today.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was growing up, I was quite frustrated that, being in South Africa, I was on the outside of the fashion world,\u201d says Magugu, \u201cbut as I grew older, I started really appreciating everything around me.\u201d Today, he explains, \u201ccultural and geographic context is almost the pillar that supports my brand. I\u2019m a storyteller\u2014I use clothes as a way to share my own thoughts, my own histories, and my Sotho heritage\u2014to preserve certain stories that run the risk of being forgotten. If it wasn\u2019t for the opportunity to tell who I am and teach people about where I\u2019m from, I really wouldn\u2019t be enjoying what I\u2019m doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Piccioli\u2019s experience was not dissimilar. \u201cI grew up in a small place near Rome\u2014 not the centre of the world,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s probably why I\u2019m still dreaming about fashion\u2014because as a kid, I felt far from everything. Today, I want to be the kid that was dreaming; I want to maintain that idea of enchanted eyes.\u201dPiccioli wanted to layer Magugu\u2019s ensemble with his own Roman world, \u201cto give value to this fabric by incorporating it into a cape\u2014a symbol of the Italian Madonna, of Renaissance culture. The beauty of Rome,\u201d he adds, \u201cis about its layered feeling\u2014Pasolini and Baroque angels together.\u201d Twelve craftspeople from Valentino\u2019s fabled couture atelier were tasked with transforming the blanket motif into a form of intarsia embroidery set into cashmere, a subtle but highly labour-intensive process.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I think of my culture, I think of it as quite regal,\u201d Magugu told Piccioli at the final unveiling, \u201cand you\u2019ve managed to completely capture that.\u201d Ultimately, Piccioli says, \u201cthis is a demonstration that fashion can connect the world. Thebe\u2019s talking about his culture, I\u2019m talking of my own\u2014but actually, we share the same values, the same idea of fashion as self-expression.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Thebe Magugu set out to transform a fuchsia-pink ball gown from Pierpaolo Piccioli\u2019s Valentino\u2014and Piccioli followed suit on a jaunty green Magugu pantsuit\u2014each designer channelled their creativity into something fantastically new<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12963,"featured_media":18444,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,36],"tags":[7,37,38],"class_list":{"0":"post-18447","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fashion","8":"category-lifestyle","9":"tag-apie-project","10":"tag-fashion","11":"tag-lifestyle"},"yoast_head":"\n