23-year-old Sipho Phakathi was born and raised in Hillbrow, Johannesburg. A self-taught illustrator, and fashion designer. In 2012 Phakathi launched an international fashion brand called Favelo.
Due to tuition fees being expensive Sipho says he never had any formal training nor studied at a professional institution. He learned everything he knows about fashion through his every day experiences and on the ground interaction. His fashion career began when he worked at Cotton On. He spent a total of 6 weeks analyzing their every move; from where they make clothes to the various fabrics they used and after leaving Cotton On he became an entrepreneur.
The garments he started off with were thrifted clothing which he’d modify by stitching on cool accessories and reselling them until he raised enough money to manufacture. Favelo’s first collection was a mixture of snakeskin textured shorts and t-shirts which were launched in 2013 and did fairly well.
Their first international footing was in 2016 when they started distributing in the US via a shop called Status shop in Philadelphia.
Interesting Fact: Their brand is the only SA brand stocked in USA by one of their largest retailers (Zumiez).
Sipho speaks at length about Favelo and his journey with #TheBestDrive team:
Written by: Y
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