How Mozambican António Macheve Jr founded an African luxury menswear brand

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How Mozambican António Macheve Jr founded an African luxury menswear brand

7:32 CAT | 18 Jan 2018

When the founder of an African luxury menswear brand XIPIXI couldn’t get a job within a period of two years after returning home from the USA, he invested R45 into a production of a pair of shorts

Macheve Jr sold the pair and produced another three pairs of shorts.

This multiplying effect turned the simple idea into an African symbol of luxury and excellence for gentlemen serving 10 countries around the world through e-commerce and physical retail stores within a period of five years.

“This simple idea, which was first aimed at overcoming unemployment, turned into a fervent need to fill a gap in the market at the regional and international levels, where there are very few luxury brands made in Africa catering to gentlemen only,” he says.

Macheve Jr says he is always asked to design clothes for women but XIPIXI means “cat” in Ronga, a colloquial expression and term of endearment referring to men.

“In addition to catering to the modern ‘cool cats’ around the world, our greatest purpose at XIPIXI is to start shifting the narrative that Africans are only consumers of luxury goods from the American, European and Asian markets,” he told Destiny MAN.

Macheve Jr is a Mandela Rhodes Scholar from Mozambique and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science with a concentration in International Politics from Queens College of the City University of New York and a Master’s of Philosophy in Development Studies from the University of Cape Town.

This founder and Creative Director of XIPIXI is originally from Maputo, was raised in his hometown, Paris and New York and is currently based in Cape Town.

His experience of three continents during his formative years contributes extensively to the DNA of the brand, which celebrates African heritage with touches of bespoke tailoring in a very unique and original manner.

He says as the business-owner, a new set of challenges is presented to him every day, but he looks at life with a lot of optimism and from a problem-solving standpoint.

“I am truly passionate about making gentlemen look good. Overall, the biggest challenge has been to reconcile the idea of building a brand from a creative, branding, marketing and communications standpoint, while making sure that the backend of the company has a strong business structure for the apparel to be produced, available and properly distributed throughout the world in time for our clientele,” he says.

He says this needs to be done while simultaneously making sure that the mistakes are corrected immediately.

“The best way to deal with these challenges is to always be aware of all operations within the business and react fast,” he says.

For doing great work, Macheve Jr embraces two prerequisites: giving his creatives space and time to create and creating a positive environment where mistakes are seen as data and lessons rather than failure.

He believes that these are the most exciting times for fashion in South Africa and globally as the fashion industry is growing swiftly.

“It t is always great to see new entries of talented designers in the SA Designer Handbook. The country is building and investing seriously in the next generation of global fashion icons, and it’s great to watch and to be a part of that movement,” he says.

He says fashion weeks in South Africa are no longer attracting regional and continental fashion-lovers only, but also international fashion and lifestyle magazines, bloggers, stylists and world-renowned fashion enthusiasts.

“The concept of street style is very much alive, South African superstars proudly wear local designers for award shows and appearances, the top modelling agencies on the continent are in South Africa, there is also a healthy emergence of the fashion and street style photographers with concrete stories to tell,” he says.

For South Africa to position itself in the global market and strive, there is a need to be consistent, as it is vital in branding.

“You will find that there are cases of designer brands that start, take breaks, disappear, and then come back. I do not think that this behaviour is conducive to success in the global fashion market, especially the competitive world market, where companies disappear from the fashion landscape because they are unable to compete,” he asserts.

He maintains that South Africans should not be afraid to tell their own stories in an original way and communicate their experiences using fashion and the creative industries as a vessel to convey their messages.

His biggest break was when he showcased “The Year of the Gentleman” collection at Joburg Fashion Week in 2016 by African Fashion International.

“We got a great deal of regional and international coverage, our collection received fantastic reviews, our front-row was on fire, and I remember having a lot of famous people in the fashion and entertainment industries starting to follow our movement in South Africa, Mozambique, Nigeria, France and the United States,” he says.

XIPIXI has partnered with The Glenlivet and Macheve Jr says he is very excited and enthusiastic.

“It is timely, original and it feels right. This is an association between two leading brands that epitomize excellence, great heritage and craftsmanship. Both are true originals and are united by their fearless pursuit of doing things differently and carving new roads. We both work to encapsulate the invitation for gentlemen to seek out their own originality and to express it,” he says.

He advises entrepreneurs who aspire to venture into fashion to start small, move fast and be consistent and original.

By Phathu Luvhengo

Source: Destiny Man