Dior launches Thebe Magugu capsule to support Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project

Supporting the Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project (CTAOP), Dior and Maria Grazia Chiuri collaborated with 2019 LVMH Prize winner for Young Fashion Creators, Thebe Magugu.

CTAOP is a foundation created in 2007 which aims to support the health, education, and safety of Southern African youth. In accordance with this objective, Maria Grazia Chiuri has developed a collaborative project shedding light on a new generation of designers, creating and producing in this country.

The youngest recipient of the LVMH Prize and the first African to receive this prestigious distinction, Thebe Magugu was invited by Maria Grazia Chiuri to reinterpret the iconic New Look, through his own contemporary feminist vision. An opportunity to establish a dialogue between both of their creative studios and ateliers, from Paris to Johannesburg.

A cotton t-shirt, entirely produced in South Africa, displays the design of two female profiles holding hands – a powerful symbol of sisterhood – that can also be admired, in bright yellow, on the essential Diorcamp, as well as on a silk twill scarf featuring mesmerizing graphics constellated with the Dior signature.

The emblematic Dior Book Tote is adorned with the same “manifesto-as-a-seal” in a large format that seems to melt into the deep blue of the irresistible Dior Oblique fabric, the fruit of the House’s expertise. Echoing this, a matching bob, adorned with two drawstrings – distinctive features of the young designer’s creations – completes this hyper-modern, hybrid silhouette. It is elevated by an enchanting, feather-light tulle skirt, with pleats underlining symmetrical effects.

This ultra-desirable limited-edition capsule will be available from October 27. In celebration of this collaboration, a donation has been made to CTAOP on behalf of Dior.

Thebe Magugu is a 28-year-old fashion designer, based in Johannesburg. Born in Kimberley, a very small mining town in the middle of South Africa, he was brought up by three generations of strong women. He explains that his clothes are a tribute to them, “a constant ode to the powerful and independent matriarchs who raised me.”

Inspired by the magic that is born at the intersection of various cross-disciplines, Thebe Magugu studied fashion design, fashion photography, and fashion media, which all play a very important role in his storytelling.

His brand, established in 2016, is rooted in the idea of education. It acts as an encyclopedia that speaks of the stories and crafts it thrives on, with each successive collection being named after a university subject. Past collections include Geology, Home Economics, Gender Studies, African Studies, Prosopography, Counter Intelligence, and Alchemy. This is an important facet of the label: to act as a resource to its consumers – not only to reveal beautiful functional clothes that converge with women’s lives but to allow them to act as relics that future generations might look back on to understand cultures and peoples.

Thebe Magugu is a South African fashion brand that imagines ready-to-wear collections for women and men, alongside parallel, multidisciplinary capsules. Thebe Magugu’s identity is based on pillars such as cultural tributes, new ideas, and uncompromising quality marked by self-evolving timelessness.

Constantly seeking to improve the every day, Thebe Magugu’s elegant, unique clothes continue to look to the future, mixing motifs and details that draw from the African continent’s storied past, complex present and exciting imagined futures. These smart, multifaceted clothes mirror the inspiring qualities of the people they are made for.

CTAOP advances and invests in the health, education, and safety of young people living in Southern Africa to create a more equitable future for all. CTAOP’s approach supports community-based organizations (Program Partners) by providing funding, strengthening capacity, and bringing awareness to their work. This helps ensure the youth they serve are on a path to reaching their full potential and have the knowledge, tools, and skills to keep themselves healthy and safe. In addition, CTAOP’s Youth Leaders Scholarship program provides young leaders in South Africa with full scholarships for their tertiary journey.

CTAOP was created in 2007 by actor and United Nations Messenger of Peace, Charlize Theron, with the hope of making a difference for youth in her home country of South Africa. Although the geographic scope of CTAOP is sub-Saharan Africa, South Africa has remained the primary area of focus with the highest number of people living with HIV in the world.

charlizeafricaoutreach.org dior.com