When we think of Africa month, we don’t just look at African prints, we also consider African designers making their mark in the industry.
This brings us to Imprint, which is a South African Afro-futuristic luxury brand catering to both men and women.
To celebrate the African month, Imprint has partnered with Nigerian-American musician Jidenna Theodore Mobisson for the GQ South Africa May/June issue.
On the cover of the gloss shot by Aart Verrips, Jidenna drips in Imprint after being introduced to the brand by Pearl Thusi.
Jidenna in Imprint for GQ.
Mzukisi Mbane, the founder of Imprint, expanded on the partnership.
He said: “I met Jidenna through Pearl who got introduced to Imprint while she was shooting for Cosmopolitan and has been at the studio a few times to buy some pieces. She kept on looking at my stuff, my style and how I was dressed and was like ‘looking at your style, I think a friend of mine would go for your stuff’.
“The friend turned out to be Jidenna and she told me she was going to send my garments to him. When I went to see Jidenna and his team he told me he was shooting for GQ and wanted to work with African designers. He wanted the shoot to represent something that he stands for, that’s how the collaboration came about.”
His favourite look is Jidenna in a blue suit because that’s the same suit that he (Mbane) wore when he met with the “Classic Man” hitmaker.
Jidenna is a blue suit by Imprint.
“The blue suit was not supposed to be part of the shoot because it’s the suit I wore when I was meeting with him and he fell in love with it. We made it urgently it was not fitted nor tailored, we just sent it to him and it became part of the GQ shoot,” added Mbane.
Most people seem to love the cover.
Jidenna is unapologetically African and all is revealed in an interview with Modupe Oloruntoba where he talks about Pan-Africanism, xenophobia, and funk.
Get a copy of GQ SA to read all about it.