“South African designer Wanda Lephoto is challenging conventional ideas about fashion sustainability by arguing that African fashion’s value extends beyond fibres, factories and manufacturing to include cultural memory, craftsmanship, heritage and human collaboration. His approach places longevity, inheritance, local knowledge and cultural identity alongside environmental responsibility, suggesting that sustainability can also mean creating garments with enough meaning and quality to be valued, repaired and passed on.”
Sustainability Is Becoming More Than an Environmental Question
Sustainability in fashion is frequently discussed through familiar subjects such as recycled fabrics, organic fibres, lower emissions, waste reduction and responsible manufacturing. However, a recent story about South African designer Wanda Lephoto broadens that discussion by placing culture, memory and craftsmanship at the centre of sustainable fashion.
Published on 25 September 2026 by Bird Story Agency and carried by African and South African media, the report examines Lephoto’s view that Africa’s competitive advantage in fashion cannot be measured only through its access to raw materials or manufacturing capacity. Instead, the continent possesses cultural knowledge and creative traditions that can give garments distinctive meaning and long-term value.
That perspective is particularly significant for South Africa’s fashion industry. The country has a long history of textile production, tailoring, craft, indigenous cultural expression and contemporary design. At the same time, South African designers operate within an international industry increasingly confronted with questions about waste, consumption, production, labour and environmental impact.
Lephoto’s approach offers another way of considering the problem: What happens when clothing is designed not simply to be purchased and replaced, but to become something people want to keep?
From Fashion Product to Cultural Object
The latest discussion surrounding Lephoto centres on the idea that clothing can carry stories.
According to the report, his creative practice draws inspiration from everyday objects, family photographs, historical images, street posters, religious garments and other elements connected to South African life. These sources become starting points for contemporary fashion rather than simply historical references.
This approach matters for sustainability because it challenges the culture of constant replacement.
Fast fashion generally depends on rapid product cycles. New designs enter the market frequently, encouraging consumers to continually update their wardrobes. When garments are treated primarily as temporary trends, their useful lives can become short, increasing pressure on production systems and waste-management infrastructure.
Lephoto’s philosophy moves in another direction. The story describes his interest in garments that can last, be repaired and eventually become part of an inheritance.
That changes the meaning of durability.
A durable garment is not only physically strong. It can also have emotional, cultural and personal durability. When consumers associate a piece of clothing with family history, identity or an important memory, there may be a stronger reason to preserve it rather than discard it.
The Meaning of “Inheritance” in Fashion
One of the central ideas in the report is Lephoto’s description of clothing as something capable of becoming an inheritance.
That concept has important implications for sustainable fashion in South Africa.
Clothing has historically played a role in expressing identity across communities. Traditional garments, ceremonial clothing, uniforms and handmade textiles can communicate age, status, community, occupation, celebration and belonging.
Modern designers can therefore draw on heritage without necessarily reproducing historical clothing exactly.
Instead, cultural references can become part of contemporary design language.
This is evident in Lephoto’s research project, WL FOUND, which investigates objects, images and creative material associated with South African history between 1850 and 1994. According to the report, the project has involved research into museums, family collections, popular culture and Johannesburg’s streets.
The significance for sustainability is that historical research can encourage designers to slow down the creative process. Rather than producing collections entirely around short-lived trends, designers can build products around stories that have deeper cultural foundations.
Sustainability and Local Craftsmanship
Another important element of the story is the connection between sustainability and the people behind fashion products.
Lephoto emphasises the human hands involved in textiles and clothing. That brings the conversation beyond environmental sustainability and towards the social dimension of fashion.
A garment does not appear simply because a fabric exists.
Farmers may produce fibres. Textile workers transform fibres into yarn and fabric. Pattern makers, cutters, machinists, embroiderers, dyers, tailors, designers, photographers, stylists and other creative professionals contribute to the finished product.
Understanding those connections can make consumers more aware of the real value of clothing.
It also creates opportunities for African fashion businesses to retain more value locally. If South African designers can develop distinctive brands around local design knowledge and skilled production, the economic benefits can extend beyond the final retail transaction.
This is particularly relevant as African countries seek to strengthen textile and clothing value chains.
Circular Fashion and the African Context
The global fashion industry is increasingly exploring circularity, which generally involves extending product life, reducing waste and keeping materials and products in use for longer.
Lephoto’s approach is compatible with several principles of circular fashion because it emphasises longevity and the possibility of garments being repaired and inherited.
However, African approaches to sustainability do not necessarily need to copy models developed in Europe, North America or other markets.
South Africa already has traditions of repair, reuse, tailoring, alteration and creative adaptation. Second-hand clothing markets are also significant across the continent.
The challenge is to connect these existing practices with modern fashion businesses, manufacturing systems and consumer expectations.
This could include stronger repair services, resale platforms, clothing alterations, textile recycling, upcycling and made-to-order production.
It could also mean designing garments from the beginning with future repair and reuse in mind.
Afreximbank and the Commercial Opportunity
The sustainability discussion also has an important economic dimension.
The report highlights the work of the African Export-Import Bank’s Creative Africa Nexus, or CANEX, which supports African creative industries and fashion businesses. Khanyi Mashimbye, creative and cultural industries manager at Afreximbank, is quoted as saying sustainability is a selection criterion for the programme rather than simply an optional feature.
The programme’s focus includes circularity, artisan livelihoods and lower-impact production.
This demonstrates how sustainability is increasingly becoming connected to access to international markets.
Global buyers are paying greater attention to the environmental and social characteristics of products. For African fashion brands, that creates both an opportunity and a challenge.
The opportunity is that distinctive African design, craftsmanship and cultural knowledge can become commercial assets.
The challenge is ensuring that claims about sustainability are supported by genuine practices, transparent supply chains and fair relationships with artisans and communities.
Cultural Ownership Is Part of the Sustainability Conversation
The story also raises an important issue concerning cultural knowledge.
When traditional symbols, crafts, patterns or cultural expressions become commercially valuable, questions arise about who owns that knowledge and who benefits from its commercial use.
This is especially relevant to African fashion, where designers may work with traditional motifs, indigenous craft techniques, historical imagery or community-based knowledge.
The report references international discussions around traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions, noting that conventional intellectual-property systems do not always fit community-held cultural assets neatly.
For sustainable fashion, therefore, ethical practice cannot stop at the material used to make a garment.
A truly responsible approach may also require designers and businesses to consider where cultural inspiration comes from, who contributed to it, how communities are acknowledged and whether economic benefits are shared fairly.
Building a Stronger South African Fashion Industry
South Africa’s sustainability conversation is also connected to the development of its domestic fashion economy.
South African Fashion Week describes itself as “The Business of Ethical Fashion” and says it actively promotes ethical and slow fashion, including responsible production and the use of natural fibres.
That broader industry movement demonstrates that sustainability is not an isolated concern.
It connects design, manufacturing, retail, entrepreneurship, heritage, employment and international trade.
Proudly South African has likewise used its Local Fashion Police initiative and related masterclasses to support local fashion entrepreneurs, with its September 2026 newsletter describing training around sustainable fashion businesses and growth opportunities.
Together, these developments show how sustainability is increasingly being discussed as part of building a stronger local fashion ecosystem.
Why the Story Matters for Consumers
For consumers, the discussion offers a practical reminder that sustainable fashion is not limited to purchasing products labelled “eco-friendly.”
Consumers can also extend the life of clothing by buying fewer but more durable garments, repairing damaged pieces, supporting local designers, purchasing second-hand clothing and learning more about how garments are produced.
Cultural value can also influence purchasing decisions.
A garment connected to a meaningful story may be more likely to remain in someone’s wardrobe for years than an item bought solely because it happens to be trending.
This creates an alternative relationship between consumers and fashion: one based less on constant replacement and more on ownership, care and connection.
The Future of Sustainable African Fashion
The South African fashion sustainability story emerging from Lephoto’s work ultimately points toward a broader definition of responsible fashion.
Environmental concerns remain important. Waste, resource consumption, emissions and material choices all matter.
But sustainability can also involve the preservation of skills, support for artisans, responsible cultural representation, local value creation and designing products that people genuinely want to keep.
For African fashion, this approach may offer a particularly powerful opportunity.
The continent does not have to compete only by producing garments more cheaply or increasing manufacturing capacity. African designers can also compete through originality, craftsmanship, cultural knowledge and stories rooted in places and communities.
Afreximbank’s CANEX programme illustrates the international potential of this approach. By the end of 2024, the programme had showcased 90 designers from 32 countries at international fashion weeks, with participating brands receiving exposure and orders from international markets.
The wider lesson is that sustainability and commercial success do not necessarily have to be separate objectives.
For South African fashion, they can intersect through better design, longer-lasting products, skilled local production, cultural responsibility and stronger connections between designers and their communities.
Conclusion
The latest significant sustainability-related fashion story connected to South Africa is ultimately about value.
Wanda Lephoto’s perspective challenges the assumption that fashion value begins and ends with fabric, manufacturing and retail. His work suggests that cultural memory, craftsmanship, personal identity and human relationships can add another layer of value to clothing.
That perspective is particularly relevant at a time when the fashion industry is confronting the environmental and social consequences of rapid consumption.
For South African fashion, sustainability can therefore mean more than using different materials. It can mean creating clothing that has reasons to survive: clothing that tells stories, supports skilled people, reflects cultural knowledge and remains meaningful long after a trend has disappeared.
In that sense, the future of sustainable fashion may not simply be about producing less. It may also be about producing things that people value more—and keeping those products, skills and stories alive for the next generation.
