Paris Fashion Week: Cultural Cartography ~ MaXhosa Spring/Summer 2026 Maps the Spirit of Africa onto the Runway

In Paris, at the MaXhosa show backstage, a model wears one of the new designs from the latest collection. Photograph (above) by Brittany Scott. 

Marking a significant chapter in South African fashion, MaXhosa's Spring/Summer 2026 showcase in Paris encapsulated both celebration and continuity. Under the creative direction of Laduma Ngxokolo, the brand used its platform at fashion week to reaffirm a decade and a half of work dedicated to fusing Xhosa heritage with contemporary design. Story by Antonio Visconti. Photographs by Brittany Scott

The new MaXhosa collection

in Paris mixed vivid hues with

intricate patterns and textures. 

LADUMA Ngxokolo’s aim for his new MaXhosa collection was to bridge continents and generations by presenting Izipho Zabadala, “Gifts for the Ancestors,” reaffirming his position as one of Africa’s leading fashion designers. 

Presented as part of the official Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode schedule, the designer paid homage to lineage while charting new creative ground. 

With more than 30 intricately constructed looks, the show combined traditional motifs with modern construction, reflecting Laduma Ngxokolo’s ongoing mission to position African craftsmanship within the vocabulary of international luxury.

"This collection stands as our heartfelt offering of gratitude to the wisdom, creativity, and heritage passed down by our elders," the designer said. "Every garment speaks across time, weaving past, present, and future together, a bridge connecting the living with the ancestral realm." 

The showcase, held at the Lycée Saint-Louis-de-Gonzague, marked the brand’s fourth consecutive season on the official Paris schedule and its 15th anniversary, milestones that underscore its steady rise from a South African knitwear label to a global luxury name.

Ngxokolo’s vision for Spring/Summer 2026 was a meditation on heritage as both inheritance and innovation. Conceived as an offering to his forebears, the collection celebrated the wisdom and artistry passed down through generations of Xhosa craftsmanship. The designer described the garments as vessels for ancestral memory, a dialogue between the spiritual and the contemporary.

The presentation opened with a soulful performance by South African legend Yvonne Chaka Chaka, setting the tone for a show steeped in both rhythm and reverence. Models walked on richly patterned carpets from MaXhosa’s homeware line, wearing garments alive with movement: tiered ruffles, beaded motifs, and geometric knits in vivid harmonies of pink, ochre, turquoise, and black. The intricacy of Xhosa beadwork was translated into cascading textures, while pulled-thread embroidery and modular silhouettes introduced a modern, adaptable sensibility.

The collection mixed traditional motifs with modern construction, reflecting Ngxokolo’s ongoing mission to position African craftsmanship within the vocabulary of international luxury

Elegant rows of ruffles were offset

by the clever mix of patterns. 

 

Ngxokolo’s expertise in knitwear remains central to his approach. His exploration of digital effects and detachable garment components underscored a desire to merge heritage craft with today's design, ideas as much about the future of African luxury as its past. 

"These pieces act as antennas: vessels through which we honour our ancestors, showing them, their gifts endure, carried forward to advance culture," the designer explained.  

The designer sees African culture as a universal language, and he emphasized his commitment to defining a South African aesthetic within the worldwide fashion lexicon.

This season’s collection also functioned as a broader reflection on MaXhosa’s evolution. Once synonymous with knitwear, the label has expanded into a lifestyle brand encompassing homeware and accessories, with flagship stores in Johannesburg and New York. Yet its core philosophy, of clothing as cultural storytelling, remains unchanged.

Paris Fashion Week proved momentous beyond the runway. Ngxokolo was simultaneously honoured in Johannesburg with the Outstanding Contribution to Fashion award at the inaugural South African Fashion Awards.

 In Izipho Zabadala, MaXhosa presented more than a collection; it delivered a cultural offering, one that stitched together memory, identity, and ambition. Through colour, craft, and conviction, Ngxokolo continues to affirm that African heritage is not a reference point from the past, but a living, evolving force shaping fashion’s future.

Scroll down to see highlights from the MaXhosa Spring/Summer 2026 presentation in Paris