Wanda LePhoto continues to innovate with his latest collection and campaign for AW22. Entitled Gaze, the Joburg designer has created something extra-ordinary from the super ordinary by taking his style cues from “commoners” such as office cleaners, clerks, labourers and factory workers. His signature loosely tailored suits come in flower embroidered herringbone, orange tartan and a wide blue striped linen. A stand out jacket is double breasted and festooned with stars. Elsewhere, a metallic silver raincoat and black denim jacket and jeans take you from space ship to sidewalk in one easy outfit change. The overall mood is one of being a refined peacock who can pull off a beret as easily as a motorcycle helmet, and who will no doubt attract attention.

For the season, LePhoto is contemplating the idea of looking at and discovering oneself while the world also watches on at the South Africa’s creative prowess, albeit through a preconceived lens of historic struggle or nature’s beauty. “What does it mean to make clothing in South Africa today?” he ponders. “The country is awash in new clothing from by ordinary clothing-makers. What we have here is a new economy produced with the status of art in mind. With variety, complexity and the sheer number of new practitioners - from across every social, cultural, political and economic demographic - it could be argued that the Gaze of this place is the most compelling anywhere in the world today.”

Discover Wanda LePhoto’s AW21 collection here.

Discover Wanda LePhoto’s SS22 collection here.