I’m a storyteller. That’s how Tshepo Mohlala introduces himself. Not as the South African jeans designer who has dressed Beyonce and Meghan Markle (and made custom dungarees for baby Archie!), not as the Overall Top Brand Award winner of the Youth-Owned Brands Awards 2022 or as the designer who sold over 1 000 masks in under an hour when Covid hit (enough to sustain his business for six months) – a storyteller. And, it turns out, that’s a very accurate description. Not only is Tshepo a storyteller – he’s a great storyteller.
When Tshepo recently spoke to the entrepreneurs in our Partner Elite division he told a fascinating story. One of growing up the son of a domestic worker in a small township in Joburg that he describes as a “place of little hope”, how a chance encounter with an artist resulted in his now-iconic red crown logo and how going viral on X (formerly Twitter) can change your life… but not necessarily in a good way.
He shared that his family was heartbroken when he said he wanted to be a fashion designer. They imagined he’d spend his life doing alterations to people’s pants or be stuck selling his jeans from his backpack. For a while, he did sell his designs from his backpack, but he reached a turning point in his career when a friend described him as “Tshepo, the jeans man”. Now he has a flagship store in Hyde Park, another in Victoria Yards and a pop-up in Sandton City.
Tshepo also shared some advice for others walking the entrepreneurial path, saying that he’s discovered first-hand that Robbie Brozin of Nando’s was right: it does take 15 years to become an “overnight” success story. He also says there’s always going to be something working against you, it’s up to you to find a creative way to keep going. And one of the secrets to his success? He says you have to work with people who are good at what they do so that when you’re ready to scale, you already have the right team around you.
