Cape Town Designer Lukhanyo Mdingi is in the running to win the Amiri prize—a celebrated global fashion award where only 9 designers from different countries made the final tier:
Global (13 October 2023) — As the fashion world’s eyes continue to turn to South African designers, Lukhanyo Mdingi basks in its recent gaze after being announced as a finalist for a prestigious, international nod to up-and-coming talent from around the world.
Mdingi is one of nine finalists for this year’s Amiri prize—Amiri being the same renowned name who created Black Coffee’s iconic Madison Square Garden garment honouring his mother and grandmothers—and joins the stage with other designers from diverse fashion backgrounds ranging from China to New York.
Based in Cape Town, Lukhanyo Mdingi has threaded the foundations of a community-centric approach to fashion that weaves minimalist heritage and the faces of South Africa into the designer’s unfolding fashion story.
View this post on Instagram
Mdingi has been in the fashion scene officially since 2015 after graduating with a B.Tech Fashion Degree from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology a year before.
In the spaces between growing his name brand and inspiring a new generation of South African designers, Mdingi’s work is laced with integrity both in message and creation.
He has already been awarded in remarkable ways before both for skill and consciousness; earning Twyg’s 2019 Award for Innovative Design and Materials for his approach to sustainable fashion, and the LVMH Special Karl Lagerfeld Prize in 2021.
Being the only South African designer of just a handful of global names to make the AMIRI Prize Finalists list is a feather both in Mdingi’s hand-crafted hat, as well as South Africa’s.
by 