Soweto designer Lesego Malatsi aims to conquer the fashion world

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/fashion/2011/sep/18/lesego-malatsi-london-fashion-week


Lesego Malatsi in Johannesburg this year with Richard Branson, who is a fan of his menswear. Photograph: Rebecca Hearfield

Amid all the glamour and autumnal colours at London fashion week, a touch of Africa was electrifying the catwalk. With a stunning and dramatic collection, a young and very nervous designer made his debut on an international catwalk.

Lesego Malatsi is not a privileged western design school graduate swathed in expensive labels but a young man from a South African township whose journey from rags to couture is as remarkable as his clothes. "I never dreamed I would be showing my clothes on the international stage," said Malatsi. "I never realised it could happen and it is very exciting."

Malatsi's ambitions were formed under the corrugated-metal roof of his home in Soweto, Johannesburg, but there was no money to send him to college and he seemed destined to join South Africa's unemployed. "But after my father passed away, my mother had a small pension and she used it to send me to school. It was difficult to study because fashion is one career that requires a lot of money, it can be elite. I didn't realise that until I was midway through my studies, so it was not easy, it was difficult, but I wanted a good education."