The fabric of grief

Siyababa Atelier reimagines mourning as a communal, sensual and ancestral practice of radical self-expression

- Thembeka Heidi Sincuba

"So if you can overcome the personal fear for death, which is a highly irrational thing, then you're on your way." — Steve Biko, I Write What I Like (1978)

About 10 months ago, I wrote a feature for Bubblegum Club on Siyabonga Mtshali, founder and lead designer of Siyababa Atelier.

Tracing his practice from childhood to the inception of a fashion line, the crackly conversation uncovered how Mtshali’s unapologetic queerness and multidisciplinary approach propelled him beyond the confines of a conventional company. It became a movement and a fresh form of activism, centring local queer identity through an unfiltered lexicon of pleasure, luxury, defiance and radical self-fashioning.

Surreally, this trajectory now yields Siyazila — “We Are Grieving”. Launched in Cape Town at SA Menswear Week 2025, the somewhat unsettling collection embodies Mtshali’s evolving vision, unfolding through garment, video, sound and performance.

Visual artist Zandile Tshabalala collaborated on a custom piece that merges the brand’s emotive silhouettes with her painted figuration, while LIKKYLIKS translated the collection’s emotional register into an experimental soundscape. The project also features a video constellation directed by Retang Sebeka.

On the phone one time, Mtshali generously spoke about the collection’s connection to the death of his dear sister, Nontobeko Mtshali.

One night, out at the practically deceased Smoking Kills Bar in Melville, Joburg, we shared libations — both in sadness and in bliss — playfully drowning our separate sorrows in the tenuous embrace of a barely breathing queer community.

At this moment, I even asked, intentionally, about Mtshali’s own fabulous fit. The designer’s retort was elusive, which I appreciated. I too was mantled in mountains of masking.