Thebe Magugu expands his world at Belmond’s Mount Nelson

For 2 years, Thebe Magugu has saved a secret. ‘I used to be virtually determined to let all of it out,’ he tells Wallpaper*. The 32-year-old South African designer, who based his eponymous label in 2016, marks its tenth anniversary with a landmark collaboration with Belmond: the disclosing of the Thebe Magugu Suite and next-door Magugu Home, an idea retailer and cultural house for artistic change.

Magugu’s Afro-modernist language, underpinned by an Afro-encyclopaedic method to histories, individuals and cultures prone to erasure, earned him the celebrated 2019 LVMH Prize. That very same ethos now extends past the garment, unfolding into a brand new chapter at Belmond’s Mount Nelson lodge, a property captured by British photographer Rosie Marks for Photograph London 2024. He describes the venture as ‘cerebral and eclectic’: a calibrated stress between English grandeur and African sensuality.

The connection started three years in the past, when the lodge hosted its salon-style Confections & Collections sequence and invited Magugu to current. ‘It wasn’t lengthy earlier than we started discussing greater tasks, and that’s when the thought of a Thebe Magugu Suite emerged. Through the preliminary website go to, I seen unused areas subsequent door and requested to take them over to kind Magugu Home,’ he says. Right here, luxurious is outlined much less by extra than by its capability to convey pleasure to others.

Throughout each websites, interiors are layered with cultural reference, filtered by means of a modernist lens. ‘Juxtaposition feels inherently South African, from utter camp to puritan conservatism, custom set in opposition to futurism. That duality was intentional,’ he explains.

He continues: ‘Too typically, “African-inspired” interiors – particularly when formed from exterior the continent – flatten into one thing one-dimensional, stripping away the sophistication, nuance and intelligence embedded in African visible languages. It was vital to current a up to date South Africa, reasonably than a fetishised, auto-exotic imaginative and prescient formed by an exterior gaze.’

The 2-storey Thebe Magugu Suite unfolds as a visually charged Afro-modernist sanctuary, with views throughout Lion’s Head, the lodge gardens and Palm Avenue. A palette of invigorating greens, deep indigos, heat neutrals and earthy ochres anchors the house. Pure supplies – marble, stone, wooden, wool, cotton and straw – floor it, whereas layered surfaces and finishes draw the hand.

Collaboration sits on the core of the venture. Magugu labored with South African artisans all through; there are hand-illustrated wallpapers by Cara Saven, custom-knotted rugs by Crayon Artel and Rugalia, and timber items by Ken Leiman. ‘The intention was to embed a way of place by means of hand-finished particulars and objects carrying the imprint of their makers,’ he says.

That spotlight extends to the visitor expertise. Working with Mount Nelson’s tea sommelier, Craig Cupido, Magugu developed a bespoke mix unique to visitors, transferring from notes of vanilla and condensed milk to indigenous herbs akin to impepho and buchu. Virtually all furnishings and artworks throughout the suite and home are bespoke too. Highlights embody a sculptural pendant mild remodeling the mokorotlo straw hat, and references to rhebok footprints rendered as silk yarn ‘observe marks’ throughout a round rug in New Zealand wool.

‘The artwork is by a few of the main artists of their era,’ says Magugu, ‘artists I’m grateful to name pals – Mmangaliso Nzuza, Lorenzo Plaatjies, Lulama Wolf, Banele Khoza, Zandile Tshabalala and Trevor Stuurman.’

Conceived as a residing platform for cultural change, and developed with Studio Landt, Magugu Home spotlights limited-edition style, archival clothes, artwork, pictures, books and objects. Programming will evolve by means of quarterly exhibitions, starting with ‘By Our Personal Palms’, that includes Zanele Muholi and Zizipho Poswa. Co-curated with Julia Buchanan, it explores ‘the hand’, positioning making as each articulation and resistance. Every season’s programme will span movie, publishing and community-led occasions.

Each areas – the Magugu Suite and Home – are designed to complement guests culturally, mentally and bodily. Friends are provided entry to key establishments throughout Cape City, from Zeitz MOCAA to Southern Guild, alongside Belmond Mount Nelson’s concierge-led experiences.

‘I’ve liked the collaborative nature of this venture,’ displays Magugu. ‘So many palms working in unison in direction of a singular imaginative and prescient has shifted my perspective on possession – from “I” to “we”.’

Mount Nelson, A Belmond Lodge, Cape City is situated at 76 Orange St, Gardens, Cape City, 8001, South Africa