About WOMXN

Hi, I'm Dana, the founder of WOMXN.

For as long as I can remember, clothes have been how I express myself. Dressing up was my favourite way to be creative, and it was never about brand names or status. It was about imagination, and the feeling that I could be anyone.

Then, at 13, I started working as a model in the international fashion industry, and I quickly saw the other side. So much of fashion is designed to make us hide our bodies, fit in, blend in, or please everyone except ourselves. Women are valued for their looks and their youth while their talent and skills get overlooked, and that same focus on our bodies is a big part of why so many women feel unsafe.

I wanted to show the side of fashion I fell in love with as a kid, where clothes are about making something and saying who you are. That's where the idea for WOMXN began.

When I moved to South Africa I saw how bad gender based violence is here, and how many women are trying to make sense of the violence around them every day. I wanted to do something about it. I didn't know exactly what, but I wanted people to know that I see it, that I'm against it, and that some of us are trying to change things even when we don't always know how.

I started WOMXN in 2022. It's a feminist brand and a sustainable one, and above all a way to say what you believe out loud and show other women you're on their side.

Caring about equality shouldn't be a quiet, private thing, so we stitch it onto tees and let it start conversations. Every collection will give back to a different women led initiative, named at launch, and we'll share what we gave once it's done. We care just as much about how things are made: in Cape Town, in small runs, built to be worn for years. We won't always get it right, but we'll keep listening, learning and telling you how it's going.

Why it matters to me

Women are often pushed to compete with each other instead of standing together. I think we need to actively support each other, across racial lines and across class, even when we're scared or shy or the world feels like a lot. Sometimes that's as small as reading the slogan on a stranger's shirt and knowing she's with you.

A WOMXN tee costs about the same as one from a big chain store. The difference is that ours is made locally and every new collection will give back. It's a small way of choosing to look out for each other, in a culture that keeps pushing us to be individualistic and isolated.

Why embroidery

Embroidery lasts, and it sits on the chest, so the slogan is the first thing people see.

Slogans have always been part of protest

The suffragettes wore "Votes for Women" sashes. In 1956, around 20,000 women marched to the Union Buildings in Pretoria against the pass laws, led by women including Lilian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph and Rahima Moosa. It's the reason South Africa marks Women's Day on 9 August. In 1984 the designer Katharine Hamnett met Margaret Thatcher wearing a protest slogan on her T shirt.

Books behind the slogans

• Feminism Is for Everybody by bell hooks. Short and very clear.
• Wages Against Housework by Silvia Federici. A 1975 essay asking why housework is unpaid.
• We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. You can read it in an hour.
• Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit. The essay behind the word mansplaining.
• Reflecting Rogue by Pumla Dineo Gqola. Essays by a South African feminist scholar.

Come say hi

You'll find WOMXN at The Conscious Kitchen, 34 Kloof Street, Gardens, Cape Town, or you can shop online. Questions? Email hello@womxnthelabel.com

Dana