Rich Mnisi’s Designs Are Largely Inspired By African Traditions, But Come With Hefty Price Tags

Whether it’s by infusing African fabrics such as adire, or unique, sustainable ones like raffia to design products, African brands are really channelling African culture to make their brands unique. 

And what’s that thing they say about the uniqueness of a brand?

Well, a well-designed unique branding strategy will build a strong sense of trust with your clients, as a fashion entreprenueur and will make you stand out among the competition.

Rich Mnisi, just like other African fashion brands, is one whose founder has developed a unique strategy for to make them to stand out. So, what does the Rich Mnisi brand offer and who are their target audience? Stay with us as we take you on this beautiful journey of one of the Beyonce’s fashion designers.

About Rich Mnisi

Rich Mnisi is a contemporary South African fashion brand that explores the treasures engraved within Africa and the world of modern culture and heritage to tell unique stories. The menswear and womenswear brand offers a contemporary outlook to fashion and strives to push boundaries on gender blurs.

The eponymous fashion label is owned by Rich Funani Mnisi, a successful fashion designer who has been recognised a number of times by fashion award event organisers and has styled a number of celebrities such as Beyonce, Ciara and so much more. He was inspired by his sister’s creativity in fashion. Growing up and learning fashion designing helped him cement this passion.

“I love design and all creative forms and fashion gives one the ability to provide others with tools to enhance their daily expressions and story telling.”  ~Rich Mnisi

Top Competitors

Orange Culture

Orange Culture is a Nigerian fashion brand founded and creatively directed by popular fashion designer, Adebayo Oke-Lawal. The brand, which was birthed from a need to create a movement that covers universal silhouettes, utilises a mixture of Nigerian-inspired print fabrics, colour and urban contemporary streetwear.

Just like Rich Mnisi, Orange Culture designs outfits that are gender fluid so they can be easily worn by both genders. With their avant-grade designs made with bright colours, outfits made by Orange Culture are suitable for self-award, explorative and expressive people.

Maxhosa by LADUMA

Maxhosa by LADUMA is a South African knitwear and textile fashion brand that caters for both men and women that have a keen eye for artistic pieces. 

Laduma Ngxokolo, the founder and creative director gets his inspiration from art, breathtaking trends, happenings in the street and more. This brand was birthed when the founder noticed a gap in the traditional knitwear for Xhosa occasions, and since then, they have had the sole mission of designing premium and modern knitwear to celebrate South African traditions.

Mmuso Maxwell

Founded in 2016 by Mmuso Potsane and Maxwell Boko, Mmuso Maxwell is a high-end ready-to-wear fashion brand based in South Africa. The outfits designed by the brand are mainly inspired by the founders’ African heritage, but keenly in touch with contemporary culture and modern women’s requirements.

The label focuses on beautifully detailed, wearable and versatile styling in natural and high-quality fabrics, while utilising the most sustainable production processes.

Awards And Recognition

Rich Mnisi, the fashion designer, was one of the 2 winners of the 2020 edition of Vogue Talent’s Digital Event under the Scouting for Africa initiative to showcase at the Milan Fashion Week. Back in 2014, he was also named International Young Designer Of The Year by African Fashion.

Just like he shared, the award was personal for him because it was an indication in the early start of his career that he had a story to tell and people were willing to listen.

“The awards I’ve received have given me international recognition and birthed exciting collaborations, and put a spotlight in South African creatives and what we have to say.” – Rich Mnisi

The designer also won the Emerging Designer of the Year award in 2019 at the Essence Best in Black Fashion Awards.

Target Audience And Pricing

Often times, a lot of fans have joked about the products in the Rich Mnisi brand, saying the target audience of the brand is streamlined due to the high prices of products.

Coming with a hefty price tag, Rich Mnisi offers a range of products including two-pieces, pants, dresses, scarves, bucket hats and many more that can cater for both the modern men and women. Inspired by conversations around him, local social spheres, surroundings, and exposure to different sceneries, the brand utilises a range of African prints and trends to create unique designs.

Although, the Rich Mnisi fashion brand offers unique outfits designs which are largely inspired by the African tradition, the hefty price tags the products come with do not make it really affordable for the regular customer.