Accessorize your beauty the motle way

Accessorize your beauty the motle way:

Stembile and Boris Brian Mukwambo. Photo: Boris Brian Mukwambo

motle, an online fashion, lifestyle and beauty magazine that helps you accessorize your style with our hand-made jewellery that celebrates the beauty and trendiness of African fashion is now on Jumpstarter Crowdfunding.

Motle, announced today that it is raising funds via a rewards crowdfunding campaign on FundFind Crowd funding. This is being done in a bid to finish the development of their hand made jewellery that showcases and highlights African fashion, that they will sell on their online store as well as to keep their online fashion, lifestyle and beauty magazine online. The company has set out to raise R40 000 on StartMe Crowdfunding so as to produce the first batch of their hand made afro infused jewellery, that celebrates the African fashion story.

Motle was founded by the brother and sister duo, Stembile and Boris Brian Mukwambo through their love of afro infused fashion. They saw how people would mix Ankara style of dressing with the pantsula township style of dressing to produce quite a unique and colourful look that was not represented in westernized magazines such as Vogue, Marie Claire and Elle. This fashion revolution that they saw in the streets of Africa’s major cities such as Durban, Capetown, Johannesburg, Lagos and Harare to name a few, prompted them to want to showcase, highlight , feature and as well as being at the forefront of the afro-euro infused fashion revolution through their online fashion, beauty and lifestyle magazine.

The duo, are budding artists themselves who know the difficulties most designers face in marketing and trying to sell their products. They have seen how many designers in the townships end up selling their products in shack boutiques, and not being able to reach their target market or their target revenue and thus having to close down. This has resulted in a vicious cycle of unemployment in the industry. To remedy this, motle offers an online store, which designers can use as a platform to sell their products and benefit from motle’s marketing campaigns. On the site one will be able to purchase, motle’s handmade afro infused jewellery from bracelets, neck-pieces to shoulder pieces. All done with precision, an artistic eye and an application of the African story told through fashion.

Their jewellery spans from the colourful bohemian stacked bracelets: To the elegant pearl choker: As well as the statement bracelet and the fun branded key chain so that you never misplace you keys ever again! Motle brings Africa’s fashion creations to Africans , celebrates the industry and Africa’s love for fashion as it is summed up by the co-founder Stembile Mukwambo as she says that “ It is time that South Africa and Africa unite, build and prosper, especially amidst the racial and xenophobic tension that we have been experiencing, and what better way than through fashion. Everyone needs clothes, everyone can identify with them regardless of which part of Africa they are from or the colour of their skin. So what better way to unite, prosper and vocalize our continents merits and beauty than through fashion”.

Motle understands how many of the young African university students and professionals lead very busy lives but still want to be fashion forward and in tune with all the latest fashion trends. They also understand how this age group, they dub the” fashion trend makers/breakers” can promote any trend by just wearing it, taking a selfie and posting it on social media. The likes, shares and comments on that post make or break a trend for any designer. That is why they focus greatly on beauty tips and style inspirations for the gym to the board room that showcase afro-eurocentric style via their social media outlets: www.facebook.com/motleiam, www.twitter.com/motleiam and www.instagram.com/motleiam

Feel free to view their crowd-funding pitch video on: https://vimeo.com/156122268. The aim of the campaign is to raise funds for the launch of our online magazine and store, to market and promote our sites, to develop, make and distribute our handmade jewellery. Motle was set up in Durban, Kwazulu Natal in 2013 when the co-founders Stembile and Boris Brian Mukwambo were brainstorming in their student apartment at the University of Kwazulu Natal on ways to empower themselves and their community through entrepreneurship. Stembile, after graduating, finally decided to launch the online magazine in June 2015 and to start developing their jewellery line in February 2016.