00:01What does a revolution look like on a sewing machine?
00:04In Blantyre, Malawi, one team is tired of wearing tradition designed in Europe.
00:09They're printing a new mythology.
00:12A lot of what we saw as Malawian fashion was based on Chitenge.
00:17And as I got older, it didn't feel authentic to me
00:20because I realized it wasn't designed or made by Malawians.
00:24It was something that was imported to us from European countries.
00:28The Chitenge fabric everyone calls traditional is actually designed and printed in Europe.
00:34To be truly Malawian, they had to start from the thread up.
00:38A lot of the patterns and print that you see in the markets, in a lot of the shops, is
00:44mass produced.
00:45We create our patterns to order to avoid wastage as well.
00:51We create our own custom prints and each one tells a story, a very unique Malawian story.
00:58The collective formed in 2020, starting with Upcycle Denim.
01:02Taking what the world threw away and making it theirs.
01:07Denim is one of the most durable materials that you could have.
01:11And we didn't want to just make fast fashion or clothing that would then disintegrate really fast.
01:17We wanted it in a way to also represent what we're trying to do for our culture,
01:22which is find a way to preserve it long term, keep it alive and also make it meaningful.
01:32This jacket is part of our elders collection and it was inspired by water tribes from the northern part of
01:41Malawi.
01:42And so the blue represents the water and the orange represents the sunset because Malawi is known for its embers
01:51or what we call the lake of stars.
01:54Between work, we really just like to play and experiment with different types of art forms.
01:58So there's like lots of different pieces here.
02:01This one is by an artist called Akulu, who is a really good digital artist.
02:06This one is by Dave, who is also a digital artist.
02:10And then this one is by Kenobi, who is also our videographer.
02:14I think it's important even as designers to have time to play.
02:20And in that sort of place, when you also discover different things that then can be bought into the textile,
02:27different fonts, different shapes, different ways of interpreting just cultural life in a way that translates to fabric.
02:39This March, the stakes are rising.
02:42The team is filming a major fashion movie to launch their new line.
02:46It's a shoot within a shoot to document their growth.
02:50Right now we are in Atlanta at CBD.
02:53We're shooting a scene from the fashion film.
02:55I think the film serves two purposes.
02:58On one end, it's a challenge to ourselves because for the most part, I think we're usually very reserved about
03:03telling our story.
03:04So the film is challenging us to get out of our comfort zone.
03:07Like right now we're in the middle of town.
03:08People are looking at us weird and whatnot.
03:10Like she's dressed in that.
03:13So the challenge is just to be more expressive and just find new ways of expression.
03:17What it internally is doing for us is also just to give us a timeline of where we're coming from
03:21and where we're going.
03:22Because we have clothes from like three years back that are still intact.
03:26So this is just another form of making an archive for the Zanji Collective.
03:31So that down the line, we're able to see what we find.
03:33Maybe we had a capsule collection in 2022 that looked like this.
03:36We did something with masks.
03:37And then maybe in 2025 or 2027, we're doing XYZ.
03:43The collective is evolving into a symbol of economic self-reliance.
03:47Success here could change the entire local textile industry.
03:51It's a gamble on identity.
03:54What we are trying to do is take art and tradition and fashion and put them together in a way
03:59that's sustainable,
04:00that is accessible, but also fun for people in a way that they can relate.
04:05Like telling stories through the different patterns and the different motifs,
04:08but doing it in a way that any regular person on any given day can look at something and say,
04:14I really like that and it speaks to my culture and I can understand the message in it, but also
04:19look really cool in it.
04:20Cantique isn't something you buy from a container at the port.
04:24In Malawi, it's something you build yourself.
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