From Memory to Meaning

From menswear to womenswear, Johannesburg designer Wanda Lephoto collaborates with Canvas Studios on a debut collection inspired by his late sister, South African heritage, and the idea that clothing can hold memory.

WORDS Neyani Mphephu PHOTOS Supplied

A year after being named Changemaker of the Year at the 2025 Twyg Sustainable Fashion Awards, Johannesburg-based designer Wanda Lephoto has stepped into new territory. In collaboration with Canvas Studios, the private label of retailer Bash, he has created his first womenswear collection, available exclusively on the platform from 13 October 2026.

For Wanda, whose eponymous brand has been rooted in menswear since its inception, the shift is less a departure than an opening. “We don’t necessarily see it as a move from menswear into womenswear, because our practice at Wanda Lephoto was never really about menswear alone,” he says. “Menswear was simply the language through which we first found our way into the world.” Tailoring, he explains, gave him structure and discipline, but beneath that has always been a deeper interest in people, in Johannesburg, in the plurality of cultures that shape the continent.

At the heart of the collection is a story that is profoundly personal. Wanda’s sister, who passed away in 1995 at the age of 10, was one of the first Black models to appear in a major fashion retail television advertisement in South Africa. She represented, for Wanda, a new South Africa and a generation filled with hope and possibility. More than 30 years later, her memory became the foundation for a collection that bridges what was and what could have been.

“I was designing for the woman I imagine she would have been, using fashion as a space where memory can exist alongside possibility,” says Wanda. The silhouettes are not an abstract interpretation of femininity. They are rooted in the images of her that he grew up with – the way she dressed, the way she carried herself, the particular sense of style she had. “She is not simply a reference or a muse within the collection,” he says. “She is the reason for it.”

The collaboration with Canvas Studios began at the 2025 Twyg awards, where Bash sponsored the Changemaker Award and Wanda also received the Trans-seasonal Design Award. For Bash, the partnership creates a commercial platform for an independent South African designer while introducing his perspective to a wider audience. “Wanda has an incredible ability to take stories that are deeply personal and make them feel universally relevant,” says David West, head of design for Canvas Studios. “This collection brings that perspective into a completely new space, while still feeling unmistakably Wanda.”

For Wanda, collaboration is central to how he works. Artistic director Oratile Moh and consultant Masego Morgan were instrumental in shaping the collection. “They are both women who I design for, who I am inspired by, so it was a seamless world to work in,” he says. The process itself was guided less by certainty than by listening. “I’m not sure we know the answer yet, and I think that is part of what makes this process interesting,” he says of understanding what women might feel when they put the pieces on for the first time. “We’re still learning, listening and figuring it out, and I think that uncertainty is important to hold onto.”

The collection considers the South African woman in all her multiplicity, drawing on the cultures, identities and histories that shape contemporary South Africa. Familiar prints, patterns and textures are reinterpreted through a modern lens, paying homage to heritage while imagining something new. Wanda’s approach to sustainability extends beyond materials to encompass local production, circularity, collaboration and the stories garments carry. “I’m interested in this idea of ordinary people wearing everyday clothes that feel elevated and comfortable enough for them to still feel themselves in their skins,” he says.

That balance – between elevated design and everyday wearability, between memory and possibility – sits at the centre of a collection that uses fashion to bring an untold story to life. It is, in Wanda’s hands, both a tribute and a proposition: that clothing can hold memory, create space and offer something meaningful to the person who wears it.

The Wanda Lephoto x Canvas Studios collection launches on 13 October 2026, exclusively on Bash. wandalephoto.com | bash.com

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