The Good Hope Girls

Cabo, a collaboration between two designers based in the Cape of Storms, wowed design scouts at this year’s Design Indaba with a uniquely South African collection of homeware, clothing, jewellery and leather bags. We caught up with the Good Hope Girls.

Who are you? 

Anja Capuzzimati and Mariaan van Zyl.

Why did you pick the name Cabo?

Cabo was one of the first names for Cape Town – Bartolomeu Dias called it Cabo das Tormentas (Cape of Storms), and later John II from Portugal changed it to Cabo da Boa Esperança (Cape of Good Hope). We are originally from Wellington and Pretoria, but have found our way to Cape Town, the city where we get most of our inspiration from (sometimes storms but mostly good hope!)

What inspires your designs?

We take our cue from nature and life around us. We make everyday items decorated with the natural beauty that surrounds us.

What do you do when you’re not making stuff?  

Anja has her own architectural practice, and also makes resin rings with botanicals. Mariaan works as a designer at a high-end kitchen company. 

What materials do you use and why?  

We use ceramics, glass, leather and wood.  All materials are used in a natural and honest way – not pretending to be something it is not. For instance, we don’t use lining in our handbags so that you can touch and feel the suede side of the leather.  No need to hide anything.   

Where is the best place to be during Cape Town’s notorious winters?

At home in front of our fireplace with some good local wine! We also like outings to the Winelands, dinners with friends… there are simply too many beautiful places to mention. 

We see you also make tea cups – what is your favourite tea?

Rooibos, for sure!  

Plans for the future?  

We would like to expand our range and hopefully get more international exposure.  Our work is very South African, yet very refined and certainly not the typical ‘Big Five’ designs tourists almost expect when they visit South Africa. For that reason we’ve had fantastic interest from the international and local market.   

Your greatest achievement to date?  

Launching at Design Indaba. We made a very quick decision to do this last year.  Mariaan was still working under the Me-Co label and Anja was doing some architectural work and making rings in her spare time. We decided to collaborate on a collection for Design Indaba and Cabo was born!  We never thought we would be here right now – it has been a whirlwind of excitement and hard work but we have done it. We have also received a large order from a very prestigious wine farm in Franschhoek recently! Very, very exciting – we’ll be popping the champagne soon!

www.cabo.co.za