With designs inspired by ancient Ethiopia’s regal hairstyles, Mpho Vackier’s designs display an Afro-modern design that has us rethinking our interior decor goals.
An engineer-turned-designer, Mpho Vackier is running her interior decor studio, The Urbanative through which she aims to tell stories inspired by African culture through products whose aesthetic is informed by functional design. The Afro-modern and chic aesthetic in the Oromo chair and Nenzima desk are part of TheUrbanative’s 2018 African Crowns Collection. The chair draws inspiration from the lines on the gravity-defying hair-crowns of the Oromo peoplefrom the 1800s and is also an “ode to the sculptural spectacle of African hair” says Mpho. The Nenzima desk, which was nominated for the Design Indaba’s Most Beautiful Object by Donald Nxumalo, pays homage to queen Nenzima of the Mangbetu tribe in the DRC during the 1920s who was said to have been one of the most powerful people in the court at the time.
“More than anything, this collection has been a love letter to the magic and mystery of African hair. We have heard a lot about how stubborn and unruly African hair is from mainstream media throughout the years, and this collection in some way offers a different glance and an alternative perspective into the beauty of our hair” says Vackier.
The designs feature steel, which is juxtaposed with materials like bamboo and other locally sourced material. The Oromo chair for example, a steel tube is rolled into a round shape. To mimic the texture of the ancient hairstyle, Vackier says she played around with various weaving styles until she settled on her final style.
The shape of the desk and the woven detail elements are inspired by the distinctive look of the elongated heads of most Mangbetu women at the time. The head shape was achieved by tightly wrapping their heads with cloth from a young age. This traditional practice is called Lipombo and was considered attractive and powerful among the Mangbetu ruling classes then.
Mpho Vackier who says that she has been pleasantly surprised by her successful trajectory in design as someone who came from an engineering background into the design industry without any previous working knowledge of the industry and daring to start TheUrbanative. “I hope that our work continues to connect, inspire and make people happy,” she Vackier who was part of the Design Indaba’s Emerging Creatives and winner of the 100% design SA Designer of the year award for the Nenzima desk.