Zyle is a Johannesburg studio. Phumzile Ntuli started it in 2016 — Friday fabric runs to Maputo, a borrowed machine, a customer base built across three industries before she ever cut fabric. Ten years on, the work has a shape: fabric as record, motif as memory, the story sewn into the weave rather than printed across it. Idzila came first, and is still being sewn. Khululeka is the chapter we are sewing now, on view in Atlanta. New chapter, same hands.
Before I ever touched fabric, I watched my mother kneel.
In our home in Mpumalanga, the women traced geometry across the floor with their hands — ukusinda — lines converging the way language finds its meaning. That was the first art I learned to read.
Years later, after a life of crossings — of borders, of selves, of silence into form — after carrying fabric home like a hidden scripture, after a borrowed machine taught my hands the gravity of making, after returning to the classroom beyond forty to name what had always lived in me — I understood I had never left that first lesson.
I had been drawing the same patterns all along. Only the surface had changed.
The floor taught me first. The fabric remembered.
The work reads from a longer tradition. Five cultural references — named, sourced, kept honest. Khululeka isn't on this list — Khululeka reads them.
A copper or brass ring — sometimes a stacked column — worn at the neck, arms or legs by Southern Ndebele married women. Given at marriage, worn until death. A circle with no beginning or end.
Unity Blanket · since 2016 · all colourways
TshiVenda for "woman." A reference to the elevated status of women in VhaVenda society — the role of female elders, the matrilineal threads in VhaVenda culture.
May 2024 winter range · with Soweto Theatre
A cloak or cape of animal skin, worn by Khoisan peoples in southern Africa. Functional and ceremonial. One of the oldest documented garments in the region, predating most other regional dress.
May 2024 winter range · inspired by Khoisan heritage
Sepedi for "drums." The role of baPedi music in social and ceremonial life. A communal instrument.
May 2024 winter range · the life of baPedi music
South African rainbow nation framing and the LGBTIQ+ community. A deliberately contemporary reference rather than a traditional one — the visual language of unity, making a present-day statement about inclusion in South African society.
May 2024 winter range
Idzila is the foundation; Khululeka is the current chapter; the references run through both. Each piece is named for what it is. Prices on enquiry.
Two documented chapters. Each one a body of work, each one named, each one rooted in references that came before the brand.
The brand's first body of work. Built on the Idzila — the closed copper ring of Southern Ndebele married women. The motif is woven into every Idzila piece. The line has been sewn continuously since 2016.
Khululeka — to be free, in isiZulu. A collection that crosses continents — rooted in Biko, Malcolm X, and Du Bois. The motif is the breaking of chains; the geometry, the triangle rising to its apex.
isiZulu · /khu-lu-LE-ka/ — the current chapter. Sewn at the studio in Johannesburg, exhibited at the APEX Museum in Atlanta.
Khululeka — to be free, in isiZulu — reads freedom as two unchainings: the body, the mind. The motif is the breaking of chains. The geometry is the triangle, rising from base to apex.
The chapter connects African and African-American histories — the shared experience of being told what your body is for, and refusing it. The philosophical anchors are named, not implied.
African American Panoramic Experience · 135 Auburn Ave NE · on view 2026. Dates and opening details to be announced with the museum.
Pieces on bodies, in a room that mattered. Two years before Khululeka, the studio's work walked the premiere carpet of one of the most culturally significant African films of the decade.
Pieces from the Idzila line — both still in the catalogue above.
The studio is in Johannesburg, open by appointment. The current chapter is on view in Atlanta. The work travels; the practice does not.
Unit 41 · Transwerke Studios
Constitution Hill · Johannesburg
By appointment · Mon — Sat
APEX Museum · 135 Auburn Ave NE
Khululeka · on view 2026
