This podcast embarks on a series of culturally-rich conversations seeking to explore, inform and create a unique definition and discovery of African luxury.

Meet my guest

Laduma is a leading fashion designer, innovator and Creative Director at the helm of the luxury knitwear brand - MAXHOSA Africa. Established in 2011, the brand draws its inspiration from the Xhosa people of South Africa to make creations informed by its beauty, culture, language and diversity. The design signature pays homage to the ritualistic practices, vibrant colours and spirited beadworks to inform the unique patterning of their innovative knitwear design solutions.

His works have shown at local and international fashion weeks, is celebrated for offering a heritage-endowed and evolutionary fashion perspective. MAXHOSA retails in high-fashion fashion districts such as South Africa, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Oslo, Berlin and New York. He graduated from Central St. Martins and graduated in 2016 and has risen to global acclaim and accolades such as Vogue Italia and named 100 Most Influential Africans.

Through his work, Laduma is an agent of change, shifting and evolving with the changing times and further engaging in the dialogue that places culture as a central subject for inspiring the future. 

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This podcast embarks on a series of culturally-rich conversations seeking to explore, inform and create a unique definition and discovery of African luxury.

Meet my guest

A true pioneer, Ofentse is an orchestra owner, conductor, classical music arranger, producer, musician and curator of intimate musically inspired/ influenced spaces and experiences. She draws her inspiration from the matriarchs in her life, giving reverence to both her mother and grandmother.

She is on a continuous journey of self-mastery with education being a central and pervasive theme for her life. She deems herself a creative academic drawn from her passion for art and Africa, ensuring that each project she takes on is innovative and of academic excellence. Ofentse has managed to masterfully create a brand that truly reflects her core values, character, people and heart - all of which are vital ingredients for a history-making change agent and rising influential cultural voice and a key player in the orchestral world.

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This podcast embarks on a series of culturally-rich conversations seeking to explore, inform and create a unique definition and discovery of African luxury.

Meet my guest

Mark began his career in advertising and communication disciplines, before joining Sandstorm for which he is now an investor and Managing Director. His relocation to Kenya was an introduction to manufacturing, lending his advertising background to bring a fresh perspective to the brand.

Under Mark's leadership, Sandstorm experienced significant growth, expanding to six shops in Nairobi and employing over 80 individuals. In June 2022, Sandstorm launched Opportunity Factory which aimed to address the challenges faced by Kenyan brands during the Covid-19 pandemic. The Opportunity Factory serves as both a production facility and a tourism destination, showcasing diverse Kenyan crafts and heralded as a "hidden gem where Kenyan creativity and innovation collide" - East Africa Travel.

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This podcast embarks on a series of culturally-rich conversations seeking to explore, inform and create a unique definition and discovery of African luxury.

Meet my guest

Adrian is a designer, facilitator and creative strategist. He is the Founder of Nairobi Design Week, annual design festival, community and design studio that creatives exceptional, unconventional experiences locally and globally. His work leverages people, ideas and technology to create design works that is structured and emphasises values such community, empathy and inclusivity. 

Some of the works they produce includes toys, games, consumer electronics, furniture, sanitation, music videos, events and experiences. Nairobi Design Week's scope of design projects ranges from products, services and creative campaigns (local and global).

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This podcast embarks on a series of culturally-rich conversations seeking to explore, inform and create a unique definition and discovery of African luxury.

Meet my guest

A multi-hyphenate creative, Louise is a seasoned Brand Consultant with over 15 years experience, skilled womenswear designer, and a dedicated community curator with an unambiguous passion and perspective on consumer behavior and market trends. Her expertise lies in leveraging cultural insights to craft consumer-centric strategies that resonate with diverse audiences.

As a British Ghanaian, born and raised in the UK, her own cultural background has instilled a profound appreciation for cultural diversity, which is pervasive in allh er work. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Fashion Design degree and Marketing qualification from Atlanta, where she cultivated her skills and passion for storytelling. True to her multi-hyphenate identify, Louise also convenes like-minded contributors and curates cultural conversations through a community platform called the Multi-Hyphenates dedicated to fashion, community and promoting inclusivity within the industry.

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This podcast embarks on a series of culturally-rich conversations seeking to explore, inform and create a unique definition and discovery of African luxury.

Meet my guest

An afroventurer who epitomises worldiness, our proud export and leading advocate for a brand-led African renaissance. Thebe is the founder of Brand Leadership Group, a multi-disciplinary branding advisory group at the intersection of strategy, creativity and law. He founded Brand Africa, a non-profit movement driving the advancement of the African agenda and the ‘Brand Africa 100: Africa’s Best Brands’ initiative, which has earned it’s stature as the definitive barometer of brands in Africa.

His seminal work in branding Africa has has made a sustained, distinguished and consequential contribution to branding and in reframing the African narrative demonstrated consistently over the last three decades (30 years). This year his exceptional accomplishments will be recognised by the University of Johannesburg and the University of South Africa respectively who will confer him with honorary doctoral degrees.

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This podcast embarks on a series of culturally-rich conversations seeking to explore, inform and create a unique definition and discovery of African luxury.

Meet my guest

Hadeel Osman is a Sudanese award winning creative director and sustainable fashion consultant, she is also the founder of multidisciplinary creative studio DAVU Studio. With vast professional and personal experiences across Asia, North America and Africa, Hadeel has worked in creative direction, visual communications, cultural management, sustainable fashion research and advocacy, styling, directing, consulting and training. In addition, Hadeel is an advocate for change and development across Africa, heavily involved in the evolution and promotion of the regional contemporary arts, culture and fashion industries.

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This podcast embarks on a series of culturally-rich conversations seeking to explore, inform and create a unique definition and discovery of African luxury.

Meet my guest

Eponymously named after the designer himself, the Lukhanyo Mdingi (LM) brand is a transcendental fashion label of global standing. He debuted in 2015 and has made notable strides in the fashion industry, presenting his seminal collections at New York Fashion Week and Paris Fashion Week to acclaimed reception. The LM label is an experience of creative ingenuity, constantly evolving the boundaries of fashion harnessing the human spirit and draws from consideration, community and timeless design to define its sustainability persona. They are premised on preserving the essence of African craftsmanship, continually collaborating with Artisans  from across the continent and employing symbiotic creative relationships to conceptualize their collections.

LM has exhibited select archival bodies of work in the Victoria & Albert Museum (London) and Brooklyn Museum (New York), been the recipient of the LVMH Karl Lagerfeld Prize in 2021 and most recently named the honorary recipient winner of the 2023 AMIRI Prize.

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This podcast embarks on a series of culturally-rich conversations seeking to explore, inform and create a unique definition and discovery of African luxury.

Meet my guest

Ruzy Rusike is an artist, curator and social activist. She currently working as the Head Curator at The Melrose Gallery, the artistic home of Mama Esther Mahlangu.

Art is defined as a visual object or experience consciously created through an expression of skill or imagination. It encompasses diverse media such as painting, sculpture, printmaking, drawing, decorative arts, photography and installations. Like art, luxury has always diversified itself by being characteristic of inaccessibility, rarity and incomparability. 

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