Issue 008 Is Here: Africa in Motion
- Lesley Moyo
- Jun 9
- 3 min read
Our most borderless issue yet — unfiltered, unapologetic, and in motion. A generation shaping its own global story.
There are issues you put together, and there are issues that seem to assemble themselves around an idea whose time has come. Issue 008 is the second kind.
This one moves with a rhythm that transcends borders, blending cultures, cities and creative identities into a single, restless narrative. It reflects a generation that refuses to be defined by geography, tradition or expectation — one that has stopped asking permission to belong on the global stage, and simply taken its place. Unfiltered, unapologetic, and in motion.
We built the issue along a line that runs from Johannesburg's spirit of reinvention, through Cape Town's evolving creative pulse, up to Nairobi's bold and fearless energy — and then out to Milan, where heritage meets modern disruption. Four cities, one continent in motion, each contributing a distinct voice that together forms a powerful collective vision.
On the Cover
Our cover holds two of the most compelling forces in fashion right now, photographed by Luke Kitchin.
MaXhosa arrives off the back of a showcase at Paris Fashion Week that wasn't just another runway moment — it read as a signal of a seismic shift in the global luxury conversation. The work is what we've called, inside the issue, an ancestral avant-garde: a language of pattern and memory translated into something unmistakably contemporary, rewriting the global luxury script on its own terms.
Beside it, Hauptfleisch Jani unleashes effortless rebellion. Shot in the heart of Cape Town, the menswear story was curated to make a statement and tell a story — a reminder that the most quietly confident clothes are often the loudest.
Inside the Issue
The features carry that same energy across the continent and beyond.
In Johannesburg, IMPRINT refines luxury with a star-studded pop-up at the Mall of Africa, the label's first-ever exclusive store. Down the road, artist Fuata Moyo commands the streets of Bree, turning wearable art and community initiative into one continuous creative gesture — her heARTbeat ruling the block.
Cape Town answers with Everyday Cape Town, a look at how the movement is repositioning fashion firmly within South Africa's creative economy, and with DUAFE, the STADIO graduate collection that insists on being read as legacy rather than exercise. There is, after all, a difference between a graduate collection and a reckoning.
Then there is the partnership we're proudest to document: Thebe Magugu and the Belmond Mount Nelson Hotel, a legacy unveiled where South African design meets heritage hospitality — proof that the country's creative exports now sit comfortably at the table with the world's grandes dames.
Our lens also turns outward. At Milan Fashion Week, Fashion Vibes Milano captures a celebration of global couture at the historic Centro Ambrosiano — a vibrant dialogue of couture, heritage and contemporary elegance, where influence is not imitation but exchange.
And we close on Nairobi Fashion Week, perhaps the issue's clearest thesis statement: the move from showcase to infrastructure. The era of framing African fashion as “emerging” has expired. What's being built now is permanent.
Why This Issue, Now
At the heart of Issue 008 are local designers whose work speaks through story, texture and form — expressing identity, resilience and vision. That has always been the Trendsetters Only project: individuality, diversity and fearless creativity, amplifying voices that deserve a global stage.
But 008 goes a step further than celebration. It documents a continent that is no longer waiting to be discovered — it is setting terms, building institutions, and exporting taste. From a Joburg pop-up to a Paris runway, from a Cape Town menswear shoot to a Nairobi fashion week rewriting its own economics, the through-line is the same: this is a generation shaping its own global story.
Read Issue 008
The full issue is live now. Step inside, and see Africa in motion.
Trendsetters Only is the official intercontinental fashion magazine, spotlighting diverse talent and bold style stories from more than 50 countries. Fashion without borders.
Comments