Matobo meets the runway: A tradition steps into the spotlight
PATIENCE MUSA
Somewhere between the red dust of Matobo and the bright lights of Harare, a story is being told—this time, not on the walls of a rural hut, but on a fashion runway.
It’s the kind of fusion that makes you pause: bold, geometric designs once etched in sand and ash, now strutting down the catwalk stitched into skirts, jackets, and accessories.
This is Matobo goes Fashion…and beyond, a cultural preservation project that’s taken a centuries-old tradition and dressed it in something new.
The tradition? Hut painting. For generations, Ndebele women in Matobo have been decorating their homesteads after every rainy season.
Using a mix of mud, sand, coal, and ash, they turn their homes into living canvases.
The designs are precise, symbolic, and beautiful—and completely temporary.
When the rains return, the art washes away, and the cycle begins again.
To honour this fragile tradition, the German Embassy teamed up with the Fashion Council of Zimbabwe, the Friendship Bench Hub, and a collective of creatives to give these fleeting works a longer life. The result is the “Matobo Collection”—a line of fashion and home décor inspired directly by the hut motifs.
Think dresses and bags that carry the same patterns once pressed into mud walls. Lampshades and ceramics that echo the rhythm of rural brushstrokes. It’s not just about art for art’s sake. These creations are being sold across the country—from design boutiques to local pop-ups—bringing in income for the women who inspired them and giving their work a whole new audience.
The project wraps up this weekend with a lively celebration—part fashion show, part live concert, part marketplace—bringing together designers from Harare and Bulawayo, and spotlighting the raw creative power that lives in both tradition and transformation.
It’s not every day that rural craftsmanship meets high fashion. But when it does, it tells a story that’s as fresh and vibrant as the rains that start it all over again.
