The return of the self

Gert-Johan Coetzee’s The Arrival opens South Africa Fashion Week, proving that fashion can be both a mirror and a vessel

- Lesego Chepape

Three days of fashion weeking can truly wear the spirit thin. But this is not a complaint — it’s more of a gentle reminder.

A reminder that engaging in anything creative is consuming. It demands more than presence.

It demands mind, body and soul. That is why, every year, I show up not only as a witness but as a vessel, ready to absorb, to reflect and to carry the stories that these clothes, these spaces, these moments insist on telling.

Day one of the 2025 South Africa Spring/Summer collections, held on 24 April at The Forum in Hyde Park, Johannesburg did more than whisper — it roared.

And who else but Gert-Johan Coetzee to deliver such a thunderous opening with a collection titled The Arrival. It was not just fashion. It was an experience. It was theatre. It was soul-searching.

As I walked through the doors after registering, I was immediately struck by a sense of intimacy, of invitation.

The foyer was more than a waiting area — it was an exhibition. Stands displayed prints of Coetzee’s original sketches, delicate strokes of thought made tangible. If you were lucky, and I was, your fingers might have grazed not just a copy, but the original. Paper holding moments of doubt and brilliance alike.