Cape Town-based fashion designer Lukhanyo Mdingi is cementing himself as an international designer and there’s no stopping him.
The founder of the fashion brand Lukhanyo Mdingi has been announced as one of the Amiri Prize finalists.
The Amiri Prize is an inclusive annual award and incubator established to encourage, nurture and showcase up-and-coming talent from fashion and fashion-adjacent fields that otherwise might not have their voices heard.
Mdingi explained how grateful he was to be given an opportunity to present his label and its point of view to the esteemed jury of Amiri.
“I believe in entrepreneurship, in design, but most importantly, I believe in the sentiment of community, collaboration and culture. Using the medium of design and all that encompasses it allows perennial room for potential and positive change,” he told the Amiri jury.
He is up against other designers from across the world, including Maxwell Osborne of anOnlyChild, Keith Herron of Advisry and Grace Ling of Grace Ling, all from the US.
China has two finalists, Luke Zhou and Maike Huang of LUKEWARMPEOPLE and Li Gong of 8ON8. From Canada, it is Dorian Who of Dorian Who, and representing the fashion capital, Italy, is Abdel El Tayeb of El Tayeb Nation.
If Mdingi wins the Amiri Prize, it would be his second international award.
In 2021, he was announced as the joint winner of the special Karl Lagerfeld Prize.
Other South African designers who have won international awards include Thebe Magugu, who won the LVMH Prize in 2019, and Sindiso Khumalo, who was a co-winner of the LVMH Prize 2020.