Sindiso Khumalo’s Mini Children’s Range

WORDS Malibongwe Tyilo PHOTOS Hema Sabina

Following the birth of her son, textile designer Sindiso Khumalo found herself inspired by children’s creativity. This led to the creation of the Khumalo Mini children’s range.

When it came to prints for the Khumalo Mini collection, Sindiso first looked at KwaZulu-Natal’s indigenous palm trees, specifically the ilala palm. “I wanted to celebrate a palm that’s indigenous to KwaZulu-Natal that not many people know about but is used for creating some of the most exquisite baskets,” says Sindiso. “I was trying to celebrate something African, but not in an obvious way. The ilala print on my bombers and leggings is an abstracted pattern made from the fruit of the ilala tree.”

Durban’s city centre didn’t escape her keen eye either. “Whenever I walk through areas that have modernist architecture, I see lots of amazing patterns. The Durban CBD is my go-to place to find inspiration for my prints. In this case I looked at window frames and tiling.”

The empowerment of women is another key element of Sindiso’s work, and to this end she worked closely with the ITC Ethical Fashion Initiative, a United Nations project, to develop the textiles.

“They run workshops in different parts of Africa: Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Kenya… I work closely with the Burkina Faso team. We create hand-woven, hand-printed textiles. It’s everything I love; it’s about empowering women. The cotton is grown by farmers in Burkina Faso and made into the product, and then shipped to me in South Africa. It is really important to me that everything is made in Africa.”