Nearly a decade after presenting her first runway collection as a Durban University of Technology student, award-winning South African designer, Fikile Sokhulu, is making the move from runway to retail, bringing her distinctive design aesthetic to a much broader audience through a new commercial collection with Pick n Pay Clothing.
Her latest collection, Summer Neiture, will launch at selected Pick n Pay Clothing stores nationwide and on Pick n Pay asap! as part of the retailer’s Futurewear initiative, which provides emerging South African designers – particularly young local talent – with intensive mentorship and a platform to translate their creative vision into commercially viable collections.
Growing up on Durban’s South Coast, Sokhulu’s love of fashion took root at high school, where she filled her artist journal with sketches long before she imagined they would become the foundation of a career.
She made her debut in 2018, when she was selected for the SAFW New Talent Search. Since then, she has taken her designs from South African fashion platforms to an international stage, including showcasing in Milan through the Fashion Bridges initiative, which supports South African design talent with global opportunities. Her work has also featured on platforms including Vogue and been worn by artists, such as Simphiwe Dana and Holly Rey.
With the launch of her Pick n Pay Clothing Summer Neiture collection, Sokhulu is taking the design language she has developed over years of creating collections for the fashion industry and bringing it to the everyday wardrobes of shoppers across South Africa.
For Sokhulu, that transition has meant learning how to design for a commercial audience while staying true to the identity she has built.
“Fikile is exactly the kind of designer Futurewear was built to support – someone with a clear creative identity and a growing body of work, who is ready to bring that vision to customers at scale. We’re proud to have her join the growing Futurewear family and can’t wait for South Africans to experience Summer Neiture,” says Hazel Pillay, Managing Executive of Pick n Pay Clothing.
Asked to describe the collection in three words, Sokhulu doesn’t hesitate: “Feminine, unique and craftsmanship.” These qualities have shaped her label since its inception, but Summer Neiture gives her the opportunity to reinterpret them for a new and much larger audience.
Now in its sixth year, the Futurewear programme was conceptualised in 2020 by Pillay and renowned South African designer Gavin Rajah, who continues to mentor each new cohort. What began with two designers has grown into an established talent-development platform, attracting hundreds of applications each year.
Rajah says focus of the mentorship was not to reinvent Sokhulu’s aesthetic, but to help her adapt it to a new context. “Fikile came into this programme with a design language that is already fully her own: feminine, considered, and full of craftsmanship. My role has simply been to help her translate that voice into a collection that speaks to a much broader audience, without losing what makes her work distinctly hers,” says Rajah.
That vision comes through in Summer Neiture, whose name is a playful take on the word “nature”, pronounced exactly as it reads. The collection draws on Sokhulu’s desire to capture sunlight, open skies and the outdoors through clothing, with prints inspired by natural landscapes, feminine silhouettes and considered details.
Sokhulu says that the experience has been as much about learning as it has been about the collection itself. “I have highly anticipated working with Pick n Pay for a while. This experience is completely different and new to me. I’ve learnt so much during the mentoring programme, being guided through retail-oriented design, and having a strong team made it an enriching experience. I can’t wait to see the full collection in stores, and for people to be part of this beautiful experience we’ve been crafting for months,” she says.
Despite the significance of the collaboration, Sokhulu defines Summer Neiture as part of a much longer journey. “I don’t feel I have obtained an achievement or a milestone; I think I am hopeful for what I am to achieve in the future,” she says.
Pillay says that this forward-looking approach is exactly what Futurewear aims to nurture. It aims to give emerging talent the opportunity to develop their creative identity while gaining the commercial experience to reach a much wider audience.
From schoolbook sketches to a collection now within reach of shoppers nationwide, Summer Neiture brings a new audience to Sokhulu’s distinctive vision, while also opening the door to what comes next.
