WORDS Amelia Brown IMAGES David Ross
Nkuli Mlangeni, winner of the Most Beautiful Object in SA 2017 and founder of The Ninevites collaborative platform, is the fifth collaborator with The Trenery Guild.
Launched in Feburary 2018, The Trenery Guild partners Trenery with some of South Africa’s leading artists and artisans on collaborative projects to celebrate the brand’s core values of craftsmanship, quality and excellence.
Nkuli opens the new season of The Trenery Guild with a handwoven rug inspired by the brand’s September collection. In collaboration with a women’s co-operative in Prince Albert, The Trenery Guild X The Ninevites rug is a geometric play of salmon, sage and slate – colours referenced in the new season range. This 100% wool rug was created with hand-dyed yarns that were spun especially for this project, so echoing the premium fabrication used in Trenery ranges.
The rug is on show at the standalone Trenery store in Sandton. We chatted to Nkuli about the project and craftsmanship in South Africa…
How did you get into the textile industry?
I worked as a fashion stylist for several years and have always had an appreciation for fabric. In 2016 I was doing research on the textile industry with a focus on handmade textiles and that’s when I travelled to South America and worked with an artisan in Lima, Peru. Following that, I made the rug prototypes and later, when I came back to SA, I continued with my research and started looking at the textile space in the SADEC region.
What inspired you about Trenery’s new season range?
The colours, the feminine form and the minimalist, clean design.
How did you interpret this into your rug?
The rug is a translation of the colours of the new collection. It’s very simple – modern but pretty.
Talk us through your process…
I am a geek when it comes to research! I love it! With each project I usually go into research mode and work on the concept. I always go with what I find inspiring, what stories I would like to tell, and then invite a team of collaborators who I want to work with on that specific project. With the rugs I usually make scan cards, collages and mood boards, which I send to a graphics person who translates them into graphics and sends back to me. We ping pong like this until we have something that we are all happy with. The final graphics are sent to the weavers for sampling and they execute the whole thing from scratch. Wool spinning, dying, weaving. It takes a while to get to the final product, but I really enjoy the process.
We’re seeing a resurgence and appreciation for craft in South Africa. Why do you think this is happening?
Yes, there is definitely a revival. I think for me what I find attractive is the crafting process itself. I also really love and appreciate that it’s so entwined in working with nature. The speed of production is not sustainable and at some point we are going to have to reflect on how we do things: It’s hectic to consider how much we consume and how fast everything is going, and I think more and more people are choosing the slow way of doing things. But it’s also really cool to learn and reflect on how people lived in the past. Without having access to the information or technology we have, they manage to create the most beautiful things.
Follow The Ninevites on Instagram and don’t miss out on the limited-edition Trenery Guild gift: To complement the collaboration, a set of naturally-dyed napkins have been developed as a gift with purchase that will be awarded to qualifying customers at standalone Trenery stores around the country, while stocks last.