Trading Faces For Spaces

Local fashion designers Abiah and Bradley are making creative contributions to interior design

By Amy Saunders | May 18, 2018 | Category

Innovative fashion designers and former winners of Win A Home season 4, Abiah Mahlase and Bradley Muttitt, designed a show-stopping bathroom on a budget for Decorex Cape Town 2018. In partnership with ISCA, the designer duo showcased their indulgent design at the event between the 27th of April and 1st of May.

Abiah is a local creative and ‘modern-day Rapunzel’ who embraces art in all its forms and has a core interest in fashion.

‘Design, to me, means daring to be different while coming up with solutions to make everyday objects, attires and spaces more beautiful,’ he says. ‘I love bold, brave designs that dare you to dream and to think outside the box, even when you’re already working outside the box!’

 

 

Bradley has been active in many creative trades and is a part-time lecturer at LISOF and a sought-after interior designer. They were approached by ISCA, leading South African manufacturer of high-quality brass taps and mixers, to create an on-trend bathroom on a budget of R8000.  Indulge was set as the theme for their bathroom and challenged them to bring modern luxury to life. The pair used sumptuous textures, gold accessories, curated collections and dark styling.

Brad and Abiah ventured out into scrap yards, second-hand stores and used plumbing parts to create custom-made lighting for the bathroom. The paint technique was also done by Brad and Abiah as a DIY project. They designed and created a custom basin stand from plumbing pipes and parts. The design also featured ‘his’ and ‘hers’ washing baskets made from second-hand bicycle wheels.

 

 

Brad shared that they are currently working on renovating a space for their MADWOMEN programme which is an initiative started by their co-founded AMEN Fashion label last year. In partnership with the City of Jo’burg, 28 unemployed women from Hillbrow and Cosmo City were chosen for a four-day course that covered visual and textile studies, pattern making, garment construction and fashion retail.

‘Abiah and I are continually pushing the fashion and interior. We are currently working on headquarters that will be a designer studio hub that will be an initiative for the MADWOMEN project we work on as well. These headquarters are based on Houghton drive. The home is called The Pink Flamingo – it was built in the 1920’s and we are restoring this building that will be used for MADWOMEN initiatives,’ Brad said.