SPOTLIGHT X FRANKIE
still playing dress-ups
LAURINDA AND FATUMA NDENZAKO
GOT AN EARLY START IN FASHION, WITH
HAND-SEWN MC HAMMER PANTS AND
KIDDIE-SIZED CHANEL SUITS.
Words Lucy Corry Photo Phoebe Powell
“Our mum was good with her hands and she always encouraged us to be
resourceful,” says Laurinda Ndenzako, one half of sisterly fashion design duo
Collective Closets. “It all started with her nourishing our creativity and letting
our imaginations run wild.”
When Laurinda and sibling Fatuma were growing up in Melbourne, that meant
learning how to stitch (“we did loads of hand sewing with little bits of scrap
material to make stuff for our dolls”), and exploring the wonders of sewing
machines and fabric shops.
“Mum sewed all our outfits, and would jazz up our school uniforms to make
them look better,” Fatuma remembers. “It was back in the ’90s, with bodysuits
and big MC Hammer pants, and my friends would be jealous because Mum
would make really cool things. When I was about 10 I had crazy tastes and
I was obsessed with Chanel tweed suits. Mum was like, ‘Well, we can’t afford
to buy one, but we can make one.’ I remember going to choose the patterns,
the fabrics, the buttons – it was amazing.”
As the Angola-born sisters got older, they dreamed of having their own label.
They dabbled in styling and reworking vintage pieces, but wanted to be able to
express their own aesthetic and connect to their African roots. During a family trip
to Kenya for Laurinda’s wedding six years ago, everything started falling into place.
“Nairobi is such a beautiful creative space and it was so inspiring,”
Laurinda explains. “We’d had all these discussions about how we wanted
a label that was quite personal to us, and when we were in Kenya all our
ideas started to take shape.”
Three years ago the pair launched Collective Closets, a label that combines
distinctive African fabrics with simple silhouettes. Their collections are made
by a crack sewing team in Melbourne, and are designed to transcend trends.
“We know what the Collective Closets girl wants to see herself in,” Laurinda says.
“But there are also pieces that we really want to make for ourselves! Fatuma’s a
big dress girl and I love a good pantsuit. Our way is also to say, ‘You might not have
seen something like this in stores because it’s not cool, but this is our take on it’.”
They work hard to make it happen – Fatuma has a tiny helper in baby son Arlo,
while Laurinda mixes the glamour of fashion design with the gritty reality of
part- time nursing. “Sometimes we feel like we’ve mastered the juggle; other
times it just hits us in the face and reminds us that we haven’t got it down pat,”
Laurinda says. “We’re OK with the unconventional way that we work because
we’re family. We talk 50 times a day.”
Fatuma and Laurinda are wearing some sweet
handmade threads from Spotlight’s Spring
Fabrics Season Launch, out now. (See our
handy-dandy lookbook insert for details.) Learn
more about sewing your own styles in store, or
at spotlightstores.com. And keep up with the
Ndenzako sisters at collectiveclosets.com.au