SA designer Mzukisi Mbane said it 'feels like I'm living in a movie' after the Balenciaga mentorship was announced.
Imprint ZA designer Mzukisi Mbane (right) admires a striking black leather piece during a showroom presentation or trunk show. Ezokhetho founder Mpumelelo Dhlamini stands beside him along with a colleague. Picture: LinkedIn
Khayelitsha-born fashion designer Mzukisi Mbane has been named this year’s recipient of the Africa Fashion Up award. The award is a Paris-based recognition backed by luxury house Balenciaga that has become one of the most closely watched launchpads for African design talent on the international stage.
The win was announced by Balenciaga on LinkedIn this week, with the Maison congratulating Mbane, founder of label Imprint, as “recipient of this year’s Africa Fashion Up award”.
The post detailed how, as part of Balenciaga’s ongoing partnership with Share Africa’s Africa Fashion Up initiative, this year’s finalists were welcomed to Paris for what the brand described as “an immersive programme of creative and professional development”.
That programme began at Balenciaga’s Avenue Montaigne flagship, where the designers explored the house’s collections and archives, before moving into masterclass sessions led by Balenciaga’s in-house e-commerce, marketing, and sustainability teams.
According to Balenciaga, the relationship doesn’t end there: a tailored mentorship phase will now pair each finalist with Balenciaga experts to help shape their individual projects and long-term business ambitions.
Speaking to The Citizen, Mbane said the recognition was still sinking in.
“Honestly, it feels like I’m living in some movie. I know I’ve done the work, I’ve been building Imprint for 10 years now, but when recognition like this comes through, it’s still difficult to really put into words what it really means.”
He said the award represented more than a trophy moment.
“On face value, I know that it means I have a new door open for me now,” Mbane said. “It means that a house like Balenciaga sees me, they see what I can become, and they are willing to invest their resources to help me get there. And that alone is just amazing. I now have an opportunity and support to do more.”
A decade in the making
The win caps a breakthrough few months for Mbane, who showed Imprint at Paris Fashion Week for the most recent season, following a masterclass at Balenciaga’s Paris headquarters that gave him a closer look at how a global luxury house operates behind the scenes.
Self-taught and born and raised in Khayelitsha, Mbane founded Imprint after an earlier label, Swagger Diariez, and has spent a decade building it into one of South Africa’s most recognisable fashion exports.
The brand describes itself as Afro-futurist and Pan-African, built around original prints designed to tell the stories of African ancestry with what Mbane calls a “modern and futuristic feel”. Its clothes have been worn by local names including Nomzamo Mbatha, DJ Zinhle and Pearl Thusi, as well as international figures such as Billy Porter and Jidenna, and have featured in Vogue Italia, Harper’s Bazaar and Marie Claire UK.
Africa Fashion Up organisers described Imprint’s Afro-futuristic aesthetic and “highly modern, sculptural silhouettes” as a defining reason for Mbane’s selection this year.
What is Africa Fashion Up?
Africa Fashion Up is a Paris-based initiative run by Share Africa, now in its sixth edition, dedicated to identifying and developing emerging designers and entrepreneurs from Africa and its diaspora.
Each year, a shortlist of finalists is flown to Paris for a business and creative immersion programme, culminating in a runway presentation before an audience of luxury industry executives, buyers and cultural figures.
This year’s four winners, selected from a competitive applicant pool spanning South Africa, Nigeria and Côte d’Ivoire, took part in masterclasses with Balenciaga’s teams, met buyers from Galeries Lafayette, and received strategy and profitability training through HEC Paris, alongside design workshops run by Istituto Marangoni Paris.
The programme culminated in an official show at the Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, timed to coincide with the global touring exhibition Africa Fashion, which was showing in the French capital at the same time.
Balenciaga chief executive Gianfranco Gianangeli said the house’s involvement was about long-term investment in the continent’s creative economy, rather than a one-off showcase, noting that Balenciaga’s commitment supports emerging African designers “on their entrepreneurial journey”.
Who else has won it
Since launching in 2021, Africa Fashion Up has built a track record of pushing its winners toward wider commercial visibility:
- Emmanuel Okoro (Nigeria), founder of Emmy Kasbit, took the inaugural 2021 prize for a tailoring collection built around traditional West African Akwete cloth. His win led to his collection being stocked on the luxury marketplace Jendaya, and he has continued to build Emmy Kasbit’s profile on the international circuit since.
- Jacques Bam (South Africa) and Muyishime Edi Patrick (Rwanda) shared the “Designer Africa Fashion Up” title in 2022.
- The 2023 edition expanded to five laureates drawn from across the continent and its diaspora, selected with Balenciaga and Galeries Lafayette on the judging committee.
- Hawi Midekssa (Ethiopia), of the label Hawii, was a double winner in 2025, taking both the Balenciaga Best Designer Africa Award and the Galeries Lafayette Women’s Entrepreneurship Award for her modern reworkings of traditional Ethiopian textile techniques.
Past finalists and associated designers on the programme’s periphery have gone on to become regular fixtures on the Paris Fashion Week calendar. This includes couture patron Imane Ayissi, the first sub-Saharan designer on Paris’s official couture calendar, as well as Nigeria’s Kenneth Ize. South Africa’s Thebe Magugu, a past LVMH Prize for Young Designers winner, is also on the list and his brand went on to become the subject of a major department-store installation in the city.
Mbane shared this year’s honour with fellow South African designer Mpumelelo ‘Lele’ Dhlamini of the label Ezokhetho, who was also recognised for her textile-driven storytelling.
