Lukhanyo Mdingi debuts his AW22 collection at Paris Fashion Week

MULTI award-winning South African designer Lukhanyo Mdingi is starting the new year on a high note after launching his Autumn/Winter 2022 collection in Paris.

Mdingi kicked off Paris Fashion Week’s six-day menswear season with his Bodyland AW22 collection this past Tuesday.

In this collection, he aimed to celebrate the human hands that work tirelessly in creating different designs.

“The premise of this season’s presentation is an expansion of the pure spirit of collaboration. A recent period of respite in Burkina Faso will now form the heart of the label’s opening showcase Bodyland,” he said.

The collection was a celebration of African fabrics, ethical sensibility and rough local textiles. From voluminous scarves and knitwear, to wool crepe garments, it’s a collection that showed great promise of what the future holds for the young designer.

Shown at an obscure gallery in Paris’ 11th arrondissement, Mdingi’s collection emerged from a six-week stay in Burkina Faso.

“We found the most remarkable materials, and then blended them with our own sensibilities. Keeping true to ourselves but going somewhere new.”

The garments were presented while a traditional weaver worked in one corner and a musician carefully plucked the strings of a tall Kora – a plucked harp-lute – to serenade the diverse cast of models in the show.

Last year, Mdingi was awarded the special Karl Lagerfeld Prize alongside KidSuper and China’s Rui Zhou by the LVMH Prize.