"Fashion became a language I could speak for myself," says Gugu Peteni, founder and creative director of GUGUBYGUGU. Sitting at the intersection of style, storytelling, and cultural reclamation, her brand is a philosophy of identity, ethics, and African luxury.
Born in the Eastern Cape and raised alongside a twin sister, Gugu grew up navigating the silent competition of individuality that twins often face. "Twins are often seen as one person," she reflects. "But fashion was how I made my voice heard. When I started dressing eccentrically, people stopped calling us 'the Peteni sisters' and started calling me 'the fashionable one'. That meant something."
Her earliest experiments with design started with dolls and scraps of curtain fabric. Her curiosity blossomed into full-blown passion during her teenage years, when she began shaping her personal style with deliberate flair. The power of style as identity hit her like a revelation. "It became a platform for communication, expression, and for separating myself as an individual. That remains the core of what we do now."
Though she eventually earned her cum laude from Nelson Mandela University, her education came with grit. Out of 18 students, only five graduated. "We didn't have weekends. We worked nonstop. It pushed me to my limits. But it also made me."
In 2018, her work debuted at Design Indaba’s Emerging Creatives platform. That visibility, along with an internship at Mohair South Africa, gave rise to the beginnings of GUGUBYGUGU. Initially, Gugu had no plans to start her own brand. She had seen the struggles up close, sweeping floors at local design studios, witnessing the demanding reality behind the glamour. "I told myself: I’m never doing this. I just wanted to write about fashion or sit front row."
But her garments began to attract attention. One piece led to another. A name was scribbled on a tag. A package was branded. "It just snowballed. The brand grew on its own before I even called it a brand," she laughs. "Eventually, I realized this was becoming something real."
Today, GUGUBYGUGU is a rising star in the African fashion world, known for its conceptual collections, intricate craftsmanship, and firm commitment to sustainable practices. Gugu describes herself as a "sensory person." Inspiration could strike anywhere, a conversation, a plate of food, a song.
"My mind never stops sketching. I try to turn every experience into something wearable. For my collection Echoes of Self, I was just in an Uber thinking about how my aunts and uncles all have English names from apartheid-era policies, and how that shapes our identity. That thought turned into a whole collection."
Her work is imbued with these kinds of emotional blueprints. Each piece is carefully made, rarely exceeding 20 units per collection. Production is kept in-house or with local artisans. Craft is the currency. "Luxury is not a price tag. It’s the care and time behind a garment. It’s the fact that we measure each hemline down to the centimeter. That’s luxury."
Sustainability and local sourcing are cornerstones of the brand. Her experience with Mohair South Africa was pivotal. "I fell in love with the fibre. It’s luxurious, durable, and grown right in our backyard. But 90% of it is exported overseas. That didn’t sit right with me."
This conviction inspired her latest collection and campaign: Gugu the Goat. Playful on the surface, a pun on both her name and the acronym "GOAT: Greatest of All Time", it’s deeply political in intent. Shot on a Black-owned mohair farm, the campaign reclaims the narrative around African luxury and educates local consumers about the value of what grows on their land.
"We wanted people to see the link: the Angora goat, the mohair, the garment. We wanted to say, this is ours. We don't have to chase Gucci when we have luxury right here."
For Gugu, challenging how African fashion is perceived is part of her mission. "There’s this boxed-in view of what African design should look like. It’s all prints and tribalism. But we are contemporary, minimal, futuristic, and soft. We're all of it."
Recognition has followed. She was awarded Best Young Designer, showcased at Paris Fashion Week, and received mentorship from Balenciaga. Yet she describes these milestones not as finishes, but beginnings. "When I stood inside the Balenciaga headquarters, it wasn’t about arrival. It was about potential. It was affirmation that we belong in these spaces."
And what of luxury? "Luxury is a slow-baked good," she muses. "It’s something harvested, nurtured, touched with care. African luxury is craft, intention, and story. It's the hemline measured to perfection, the fibre sourced from your neighbour's farm, the hands that raised the goat."
To young designers, she offers this: "Be authentic. Dream big. Do not edit your vision for what’s popular. And remember: your current environment is not a ceiling."
With each collection, GUGUBYGUGU stitches together a new narrative: one where African design is not an afterthought, but a reference point. Where the label on your collar is not just a name, but a declaration. A legacy in thread.
"We deserve to wear our names loudly," Gugu says. And through her brand, we do.
Written By Takudzwa Nyambi
