Buhle Fendula who is the founder of the clothing brand, The Cocky Original. Established his brand in Johannesburg, mainly Soweto, Orlando West.
Why fashion? “I love clothes and growing up I had to make an economical decision. In order to look good and consistently. I had to know how to make clothes in order to avoid buying them at a higher cost.
Also being a taste maker and an influential designer brings joy as compared to being just a clothing consumer. I love being in the development process of clothing production, it’s absolutely exciting,” said Buhle.
“People always think /assume our brand is international because of the unique logo and outstanding colour ways we choose to promote and advertise the brand.”
The Cocky Original
The Cocky Original derives from the nickname Cocky Stylist. When we asked why that nickname, Fendula responded:
“I was nicknamed Cocky because of the optimistic attitude i portrayed as a new upcoming designer in the fashion scenary. All this actually means we own and wear our garments at Cocky Original with pride and honor regardless of how our cocky deminor and style rubbs off to the opposing opponent.
The label is a premium local clothing brand that is designed to improve the highest quality of street wear. Local fashion which caters for both males and women.
What inspired The Cocky Stylist was his love for cutting edge street wear clothes which could only be seen on high-end fashion magazines. Back in the early 2000s before Pinterest and mass advertising on social media.
“I always wanted to be the 1st one amongst my peers to have unique fashion combinations regardless of how inexpensive the garments would cost and that simply lead to me enrolling in a fashion school in the year 2012,” said The Cocky Sytlist.
HOPES AND DREAMS
What he hopes to achieve with his brand is that… “I would love to compete with the leading fashion forward local retailers such as galaxy boy, Tshepo jeans Bathu as well as drip. We need more local quality products in mass production for retail purposes in order to over throw international retailers such as Zara, Cotton On and so forth.”
To bring back the retail economy back to our people in South Africa. Buhle also added that in 5 years time the aim is to have fashion studios as well as ten independent retail stores across Johannesburg.
He continued, “Giving back is also our mission as The Cocky Original. Through our podcast we aim to reach as many provinces to seek for young artists to promote their art / business in our platform podcast.
Fashion is a very pivotal skill to have most especially when you come from a previously disadvantage background but still enjoys looking good and honorable. I studied fashion because i am a lover of good fabrics and glamorous styles.”
Least favourite thing about being a designer: “Clients that don’t pay on time as well as clients who don’t understand what they want to design which is time wasting or more likely to fail because of poor planning. The designer takes responsibility for all even though the client was confused during the process.”
FUN FACTS:
- The Cocky Stylist is a celebrity stylist who has had the pleasure to dress international rapper Asap Ferg for the sports scene event in 2017.
- The multi-talented designer also has a podcast, ‘The Cocky Original podcast’. This is made to open up social artistic conversations with both industry experts and beginners in order to learn on how they can help each other as artists to move in a way to avoid making the same mistakes. That our respective artists have previously made because we believe in moving differently. They have interviewed the likes of Fifi Cooper, Kammu Dee, Ntate Jerry Mofokeng as well as Q-mark and African Papi – hit makers of Amapiano hit song ‘Paris’.