South African Rising Talents in Paris, Simphiwe Mlambo – Photo by ©Anne Emmanuelle Thion, courtesy of Maison & Objet.
Design. Each year, Maison & Objet turns the spotlight on one country’s design scene, forecasting its next generation of creatives. This time round, the Parisian fair teamed up with Decorex, the leading platform for contemporary African design, and an international jury selected seven South African rising talents rooted in local heritage and forward-looking perspectives.
Ashleigh Lloyd
Cape Town’s Ashleigh Lloyd, Creative Director and founder of Studio Lloyd, is a committed voice in South African design. Her practice puts women’s empowerment first, championing knowledge-sharing and community.
Rope weaving is her signature — in Paris, shown through a knitted lighting series. “Crochet, through its natural flexibility, tactile quality, and almost meditative rhythm, offers a deeply human counterpoint to the rigidity of architectural lighting,” she says.
Siyanda Mbele
Siyanda Mbele takes his studio’s name, Pinda Interior Design, from the isiZulu word for ‘again’ — a fitting nod to the repetition and rhythm that define his approach. He works geometric form and Ndebele pattern into bold colour, keeping South African heritage in constant dialogue with the present day.
Among this group of South African rising talents, he’s also refreshingly candid about the industry’s real obstacle: “it’s access to real production,” adding that “solutions such as upcycling or prototyping spaces within schools could allow us to experiment more freely and think in three dimensions.”
DEFT Studios
Founded by Martin Tallie and Zani Alberts, DEFT Studios is driven by a deep passion for design and craftsmanship, with more than an eye on sustainability.
Their Maison & Objet showcase features furniture with generous curves and a playful spirit. Each piece is handcrafted locally and designed to be durable and emotional, “as an heirloom to be passed on to future generations.”
Tanisha Neill
Before founding N I S H, Tanisha Neill trained as a ballet dancer, and it shows. “Dance offers freedom of movement, but also demands technical discipline. The same applies to design: a balance emerges between ergonomic constraints and personal expression.”
Her rug, stool and cabinets shown in Paris carry that discipline through — each line reads like a gesture, each volume like a movement caught mid-air.
Simphiwe Mlambo
Cape Town’s Simphiwe Mlambo works at the crossroads of interior architecture and furniture design. For Maison & Objet, he built an entire collection around a single idea: the loom. Weaving and traditional craftsmanship run through every piece — a wall panel, floor lighting, and a bench — each one a variation on that same thread, rather than standalone objects.
“I believe in objects that carry meaning, capable of engaging with the modern world without losing the depth of their original story,” he says, calling it “a single narrative conceived as a ritual.”
Meetlo Studio
Memory and identity sit at the heart of Meetlo Studio‘s practice, the Johannesburg outfit founded by Oageng Manana and Tshegofatso Ramothibe. Their Paris presentation takes the form of wooden furniture — sculpted, organic, carved through with texture.
As they put it: “Our creative language draws on a palette of neutral tones and reinterpreted traditional references. Nature and its medicinal plants are also a rich source of inspiration.”
Karlien van Rooyen
Karlien van Rooyen‘s route into design ran through medical sciences, grassroots activism and social transformation work before landing on objects that “form a material reflection on the South African landscape.” Her Maison & Objet vessels, framed as “a tribute to the land that shaped me,” offer a quietly compelling read on how people and nature keep negotiating their relationship.
Six names, one takeaway: these South African rising talents have plenty more to say — and Paris was just the opening line.
- All photos are by ©Anne-Emmanuelle Thion, courtesy of Maison & Objet.
- RELATED STORIES: Discover more architecture and design from South Africa.
South African Rising Talents in Paris – Pinda Interior Design.
