Sanele Cele is the founder and designer of Durban-based lifestyle and clothing brand Tempracha. Over the past six years, he has been crafting a niche for himself as a maker of progressive urban wear while collaborating with the likes of Dirty Paraffin and Spoek Mathambo. Our contributor, Sihle Mthembu, caught up with him and spoke about style, inspirations and his Urban Chameleon range.

Image: Thanda Kunene

Image: Thanda Kunene

Image: Thanda Kunene

Image: Thanda Kunene

Tell us a little bit about how you got into fashion and what attracted you to this art form?
First and foremost I believe artists are born as opposed to ‘created’. However, a couple of early influences that helped me find my path were that my father modeled in his earlier days; it’s hard to believe, but he was a clothing model. My mother has to be the highlight as she used to buy and sell clothes locally in the hood and she had a very intricate sense of style. My hood – Umlazi, Durban – had a lot of influence. Still solemnly, there is no other set place in this country that possesses such a vast range of style; most of the looks I wear personally and my inspirations are based on this township.

How did your brand, Tempracha, come about and why did you pick that name?
The name was coined about six years ago during my early days in the industry. My partner and I started out with wanting a name that related to Durban, so the name alludes to Durban being known as the sunny city. Not the best of concepts, but for me it speaks a lot. And when my partner and I went separate ways I chose to stick with it, not knowing that in the later stages of my life it would become such a workable concept brand.

Let’s speak a little bit about your creative process, how do you go from a concept or an idea in your mind to a complete piece of work?
I’m very flexible with my creative process, meaning I let my ideas run with me. I don’t have a set model or method to creating any pieces. Ideas come to me in many different ways, be it dreams or impulsive inspiration from a piece of material or be it something I saw downtown; I am a very observant person and have a photographic memory, so I never know what my eye captures half the time.

Image: Thanda Kunene

Image: Thanda Kunene

Your clothes have a very offbeat feel to them, I want to ask how much of your work is conceptual and how much of it is organic?
What I do is never calculated or conceptualized half the time, most of my work springs from what’s in front of me that very minute. Offbeat? I do not know about that, but I can say that whatever ‘they’ consider offbeat now becomes the tune of the day later.

You have styled some of Spoek Mathambo’s videos, such as ‘Let Them Talk’, tell us a bit about that and how it came about?
Spoek and I met through a recommendation but we had met before in a studio in Joburg – he was in the process of recording a track with a close friend Smiso Zwane for his debut album. For me, doing the project wouldn’t have been possible if Spoek wasn’t willing to give this young soul a chance – GOD bless him for that. The collaboration was written in the stars, however, in the sense that he is to South Africa’s new-school music scene what Tempracha has directed its sails to being in SA’s new-school fashion scene: a breath of fresh air.

How difficult is it to plan something for someone that is already a brand like Spoek?
As with any work of art it’s important to put your heart into what you do. However, because Spoek is such a big ‘brand’ there was more focus on efficiency and considering I had two weeks to put the project together there were also strenuous time constraints. It was very concept-focused and ‘to the book’, which (as I mentioned above) is a method of work I’m still grasping.

Image: Thanda Kunene

Image: Thanda Kunene


 

Tell us a bit about what inspires your ranges?
I’m trying very hard to infuse a local flavour to western trends and cooking up something we too can label as local, not really drifting away from what we used to, but seal a South African stamp to it.

One of the things that I get from communicating with you is that you are against this idea of vintage – why is that?
It’s not necessarily the idea of vintage that I’m against, I make my own clothes but I still ‘thrift’ till today. It’s the steady growth of mass fashion at the expense of individual style that I am opposed to. This obsession with vintage fashion causes the industry to stagnate from an innovative point of view. As far as I can remember we hunted to create or finish off looks we couldn’t afford or get our hands on, and, more so, create looks without necessarily looking like you stepped out of a time machine.

What advice would you give to people that are still trying to find their own style?
Use your sources, but conceal them well – that’s basically originality in a nut shell and don’t be afraid to experiment and life is not a rat race but a journey.

Image: Thanda Kunene

Image: Thanda Kunene

South Africa has a very strong style tradition, what relevance do you think fashion has as an art form to South African youth today?
Fashion is instrumental in deciding and documenting the lifestyles and direction of the youth of today. From bell bottoms, to Dickies, All Stars and fitted caps. The connotations that come with certain trends in our country’s fashion help shape the youth.

What are some of your future plans and initiatives that you are working on?
Got a couple of colabs coming up, I’m not going to say much but stay glued to www.tempracha.com.

Interview by Sihle Mthembu
Images by Thanda Kunene