Mungo Design - Plettenberg Bay, South Africa

Mungo Design owes its uniqueness to its founder Stuart Holding, whose passion for the design and manufacture of quality textiles is drawn from his apprenticeship as a teenager in the silk mills of Yorkshire, where the traditional methods of power loom weaving were still used. He has carried with him a deep understanding of the development of the textile industry throughout his years in modern mills. This has culminated in a dynamic fusion of modern and classical influences leading to the authenticity and beauty of our fabrics. Mungo Design is situated at Old Nick Village, a 19th Century Cape farm complex near Plettenberg Bay, which houses artists, crafters and other creative spirits who create and sell in a verdant rural atmosphere. Central to the Village is the Living Weaving Museum  

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where Stuart's enthusiasm for old textile equipment is played out in the production of individually loomed unique narrow fabrics with a true selvage. Not only do all our fabrics start as a "sample" in this living museum but the looms are used in the production of many of our specialized products. The word "mungo" is an old textile term rooted in the Latin: Inutile Ex Arte and can be interpreted as "useless things by an art made useful". The modern term is "shoddy" and is used when waste fabric is ripped up and re-spun into a yarn for recycled fabric. The quirkiness and the incidental 'African-ness" of the word 'mungo" has been 'made useful' in our name.