A New Chapter in Cloth and Place

Celebrated local textile brand African Jacquard celebrates its 12 birthday with a new visual identity and a renovated showroom.

WORDS Steve Smith PHOTOS Supplied

For more than a decade, Cape Town textile brand African Jacquard has been exploring what happens when pattern becomes more than an image on cloth – when it is built into the very structure of the textile itself.

Founded in 2014, the brand grew from a fascination with jacquard weaving, a technique that allows complex patterns to be woven directly into fabric rather than printed or applied to its surface. It remains central to African Jacquard’s design language, with each textile developed specifically for the loom. Yarn, fibre, colour, scale and construction are considered together from the outset, resulting in fabrics where pattern and material are inseparable.

The approach is distinctly rooted in place, but avoids literal interpretations of Africa. Inspiration might begin with a landscape, wildlife, architecture or an historic textile tradition, before being distilled through proportion, colour and weave into something contemporary. The result is a body of work that feels connected to the continent without being defined by conventional visual shorthand.

A New Identity

Over the past 12 years, African Jacquard has grown from a Cape Town start-up into an internationally recognised textile brand, with its collections now appearing in private homes, hotels, lodges and design projects around the world.

To reflect that progression, the brand has introduced a refreshed visual identity, including a new logo. The original handwritten mark, created when African Jacquard launched in 2014, had a deliberately personal and expressive quality.

The new identity is cleaner and more contemporary, designed to work quietly alongside the richly patterned textiles rather than compete with them. It represents an evolution rather than a departure: the visual language has changed, while the principles behind the brand remain intact.

Inside the Woodstock Flagship

The brand’s renewed identity coincides with the renovation of its flagship showroom at its Woodstock headquarters in Cape Town – a setting that brings design, production and retail together under one roof.

The renovated space has been conceived as more than a conventional retail environment. It sits within the working headquarters of the brand, alongside the team responsible for developing collections and the production operation that makes up and finishes many of its products before they leave for projects around the world.

Here, the textiles can be experienced rather than simply specified. Visitors can see and handle different weaves, compare colourways and understand how patterns behave at scale. For interior designers, decorators and hospitality clients, the showroom provides a space to consider the fabrics within the context of an interior – as part of a room, a palette or a larger architectural scheme.

It is perhaps the most appropriate expression of where African Jacquard finds itself today: a South African design brand with a distinctly local foundation, an increasingly international reach, and a continuing fascination with the transformative possibilities of cloth.

African Jacquard’s new showroom is located at 7 Woodlands rd, Woodstock, Cape Town. | africanjacquard.com

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