An open-air thrifting mecca in Johannesburg’s CBD, where discarded clothing comes to die or find new life, Dunusa evolves into the protagonist that speaks back to the West through the long-term relationship that the three artists have with it. Enter Khumo Morojele, Klein Muis and Jack Markovitz. “From years of thrifting at Dunusa; travelling in and out of Johannesburg CBD and experiencing people from different African countries, it subconsciously informed our design process,” shares Morojele. The result is their collaborative project, Dunusa: Life of a Garment, which sees these three artists protest the impact of incessant output and obsessive consumption brought on by Western economies, that continue to use African metropolises as sites of discard.

Dunusa: Life of a Garment was first exhibited at Radialsystem in Berlin as part of Forecast Forum, an international initiative supporting projects by young creatives. The body of work comprises three upcycled and artisanal looks, a fashion editorial and short documentary film. As a starting point, it introduces the market. “It was important to debut the project to an audience who weren’t familiar with Dunusa or its inner workings. There was an extreme sense of appreciation and curiosity for the idea as a whole [from the European audience]. This is partly what we set out to do: create those dialogues across cultures, borders and oceans,” explains Muis.

Through this insight, unfamiliar audiences are invited to understand an empathy that comes from being engrossed in the context of the market – its conflicts, its chaos and contributions to the communities that it serves. “Their engagement with African narratives can be so one note and simplistic, that to give them a fuller picture is our own protest. We are not dumbing this down to present a digestible message for their benefit at the next cocktail party,” remarks Markovitz. Through this empathy, Dunusa: Life of a Garment becomes a double-edge sword that cuts through the excess not only to reveal the love-led resilience of the Global South but also a prompt encouraging the West to reflect on their output redressed as aid for African countries.

There is an intentional chaos to Dunusa: Life of a Garment through its mix of mediums, textures and influences. Contagious, the tension is palpable in the lookbook and film where the notions of ‘simultaneity and duality’ are embodied through frames in frames, quick moving visuals, and arresting music contrasted with a soft, vulnerable narration. A critique of fashion conventions, developed away from the collective’s indigenous reflections, Markovitz goes on to explain how, in their experience, “matching an ensemble with an environment does so much to sharpen the meaning of that garment, place it in a context”.

The clothes themselves harness their capacity as a performative second skin that goes before its wearer, communicating sensibilities and defying prejudices. The collection is charged with Dunusa’s demand for community, commitment, compassion, compromise, contribution and agility. In spite of the chaotic challenge of having what is unwanted in excess, the work employs surrealism to subvert the debilitating weight of neo-colonialism while tending to the collective scar of colonial extraction. “The garments we've made are a stark reflection of the mix of cultural backgrounds and identities. We collaborated with artisans in town, from the ladies that do traditional beadwork, to the Ghanaian leather shoe maker that shares his story of perseverance in owning a business in South Africa as a foreigner. Dunusa and its immediate surrounding artisans make our garments a reality so they are the portrait,” asserts Morojele.

Bleeding and transfusing reality with speculative performance, Dunusa: Life of a Garment, is a portrait encapsulating spatial and economic navigations of Johannesburg. A reflection of the city’s cycle, it is sharp in its ability to materialise the risk of surviving, the absurdity of imagining and the reward of resurrecting dreams that were declared dead. And its story does not end here. It will continue to travel and influence the global design community because stories like this are circular and perpetual. Klein Muis has been awarded an expanded mentorship in the Forecast Programme. The team will deepen the narrative under the guidance of Irakli Rusadze of the Situationist label. The all-encompassing project will find its way back to another debut in Berlin in March 2024 at the Forecast Festival. It is sure to incite uncomfortable but necessary conversations between the Global North and the Global South.