The South African luxury company will open its first location in the United States early next year. MaXhosa is returning to New York Fashion Week five years after making her debut there to open a store. The South African luxury brand’s creator, Laduma Ngxokolo, is presently in the city with his team to finalize the lease for a six-month pop-up that will debut early in 2019. The pop-up will be located on the renowned Canal Street in Soho.
“We’ve been in and out of New York for a few years now,” he said Thursday night to a small group of reporters at a Financial District restaurant. “I liked the black people out here when I first came here in 2015,” he adds. “They have a wide range of expression, color, and diversity. I adore the vigor.
Since then, MaXhosa has grown from a South African-focused knitwear company inspired by the Xhosa initiation process to a worldwide renowned name in African luxury fashion, coveted by celebrities like Alicia Keys and Beyoncé. The fashion line was founded in 2010.
MaXhosa had been developing a partnership with New York before COVID. The Museum of Modern Art commissioned Ngxokolo’s cable-knit sweater for its “Is Fashion Modern?” exhibition in 2018. In 2019, Florence Kasumba organized a pop-up shop at Bloomingdales that featured his kaftans as a nod to the live-action remake of The Lion King.
He unveiled MaXhosa’s Spring-Summer 2020 collection in 2019 at New York Fashion Week with a superb presentation at Spring Studios that included actress Zozi Tunzi, who went on to win Miss Universe, and actor Atandwa Kani, who wore MaXhosa to the Black Panther premiere.
Ngxokolo is now enthusiastic about the potential of MaXhosa—which Eddie Murphy wore in Coming 2 America—if it had a presence in the United States and was better equipped to cater to its global clientele and pursue other film and television projects. He said, “We thought this was the ideal time to test our retail presence in New York.” “We are only optimistic about the outcome.”
This pop-up in New York is the label’s first standalone retail location outside of the United States; Ngxokolo adds that they are now exploring opportunities in Los Angeles and Miami. In addition to its five retail locations around South Africa, MaXhosa recently launched a duty-free location at the O.R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg. Our company specializes in providing highly uncommon African luxury, which is expanding quickly. To see it, you must stroll around Johannesburg, Durban, or Cape Town, where some of the most stunning people are clad in upscale clothing.
The pop-up is scheduled to debut in March, but Ngxololo laughs, “Don’t hold me to it.” “April may have to be the month. Our goal is to identify the top shopfitters. In New York, finding a good landlord is half the fight won. That’s the good news.
