‘KWASUKASUKELA’ SET TO DOMINATE THE LUJU 2026 RUNWAY

MALKERNS, ESWATINI – It is time to prepare your ultimate two-day wardrobe look. The Standard Bank Luju Food & Lifestyle Festival has announced its 2026 fashion theme: Kwasukasukela. Taking its name from the traditional siSwati expression for “Once Upon a Time,” the theme acts as a nostalgic prelude to African oral history, inviting attendees to become the main characters of their own style narratives.

In alignment with the festival’s broader vision of “A Return to the African Future,” Kwasukasukela challenges designers and fashion enthusiasts to view the past as a living archive. Attendees are encouraged to show up in inventive outfits that translate traditional motifs, proverbs, woven textures, and symbolic patterns into modern, high-fashion forms.

Beyond the spectacle of the showstopping Luju Fashion Show on the Runway Stage, which will feature a headline designer alongside regional talent. The festival remains deeply committed to grass-roots creative industry growth. The Luju Fashion Program will provide local fashion entrepreneurs with crucial mentorship, technical support, trade linkages, and media coverage. Concurrently, the Fashion Indaba will gather designers, stylists, and retailers to tackle industry challenges and cultivate a value chain focused on sustainable production and consumption.

“We embrace Kwasukasukela as a vibrant tribute to imagination shaped by heritage,” says Phillippa Thorne, Fashion Cafe Creative Director. “Your outfit over these two days should be a creative translation of ‘Once Upon a Time’ in colour, fabric, and form. We want to see personal anecdotes and diverse cultural tales threaded seamlessly through natural materials and inventive styles. Luju has always been about contributing to the economic growth of Eswatini’s fashion entrepreneurs, and this year’s theme gives our designers an incredibly rich storytelling canvas to do just that.”