Fashion design business: I don’t design panties-Magasto

MAGASTO DIVANE is an African to the core- he is steadfastly an African designer who wants Africans to be proud of who they are by wearing prints that define them.  Magasto is a designer by choice.  When other learners were busy with biology he was not interested- he was already designing for the future. He chills with Thembi Masser shows her some of his designs and talks about black consciousness. 

Magasto, 30, owns the Emafrica Fashion Designing in Etwatwa, Daveyton, Benoni.   He is a lone wolf, operating all by himself.  But, he says, he will be happy to partner with business savvy people even if

they are not fashion conscious.

He says South Africans do not want to behave and dress in the way it gives pride to who they really are.  “Black South Africans are a lost people,” he points out. He contends that there is no way they can be proud of their blackness and Africaness because of their adopted western ways of dressing up. “There is an inherent trait in which black, African people should behave. This DNA is imprinted in all Africans from the bowls of the motherland, but, sadly, our brothers, and more so our sisters, have forsaken that heritage,” he moans. So he has decided not to offer too much westernised products to his clientele. He is concentrating on Seshweshwe and isdwaba, for example. “Look at the people in Central Africa and Western Africa for example,” he offers, “they are proud to go to Europe and the US and dress in the manner that promotes their heritage.”

That is why he will not design under ware, more so panties for women. Magasto says panties are not African. “That is why most panties are not designed to adequately fit the curves of the African bodies, because panties are designed by Europeans and Americans.” 

 While Magasto is doing good ’I put bread on the table for my wife and kids’, he is not far away from the howling wolves. The government, the provincial people and the Ekurhuleni municipality do not help up-and-coming young business people, he complains. “They just complicate matters for you when you deal with them. They sent you from pillar to post and you end losing on both ends, with your work not done at in business.” So he has decided to give them a rain check.

He is also not registered yet. He says as soon as you are registered then you owe the government some money. “The minute you register with Cipro you owe them money.” As a young, black South African business man, nobody cares about me, about what I do. Authorities do not organise trade fares, workshops, they do not encourage business mentors to liaise with us...oh...the situation is dire Ms Journalist. Funding?  How can you expect a 25 year-old to have collateral and to repay his loan only after months of getting the loan?”

He started in 2006, but made real headway from only 2011.

Magasto went to Hulwazi High in Daveyton. He did not particularly like most of the subjects he did there except for economics. He also studied maths, science, biology English and Tsonga. He did entrepreneurship and management at the Benoni Designing College to help him effectively run his business.
          

At Hulwazi, when the teacher was busy teaching the class about physical properties of the body in a biology class, Magasto was busy adorning it with African artefacts. “I would draw bodies and designs while he was busy teaching about the functions of the curves of the body,” he laughs. The function of the body, according to him, is to show off his beautiful designs. After grade 12 he enrolled at the Benoni Designing College where he excelled.  He immediately made an impression and gave lessons to the older people he found there. He was happy to be there, he says, because it gave him the opportunity to make clothes for himself because at home his parents could not afford to buy him clothes.

But heartbreak awaited him. His parents were not happy with what he was doing. To them it simply was a waste of time, so they enrolled him for an electrical course at the Boksburg College in 2005. “I went through the motions to please them.” After that he moved out of their house to be on his own.  But the mother of his first born also walked on him, because she did not believe in his choice of occupation.

Today he is proud to boast that he is an award-winning designer. In 2004 he ruled the roost. He was voted best designer three times on the East Rand and came third in an event in Pretoria. “I am an excellent marketing man. I can sell nothing to everyone. I am the best in marketing, more than I good in designing clothes,” he brags.    

He remembers the story of a white man from Cape Town who admired his work. “This man saw my designs on a certain dude who wore a jean I designed. He pestered this man to tell him where his jeans were made. The man told the whitey about me and the whitey flew from the Mother City and spent three days at my house while he waited for his pair of jeans. Crazy, isn’t it?”

Magasto has designed for Khapela from Generations as well.

He is busy with seven young people at the moment, teaching them the tricks of the trade. “There is a bright future for me, my destiny is up there in the skies.” he asserts.  “I don’t care how long it takes, but I will get there."  

Here are some of his designs