A Kaleidoscope of Color, Texture, and Pattern, Africa's First "Designer Suite" Just Called It: Minimalism Is Dead — Long Live Boldly Eclectic Interiors

Inspired by the multifacetedness of South African craftsmanship, the Thebe Magugu Suite has landed at Cape Town's Mount Nelson resort alongside shop-cum-gallery Magugu House

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A rotating gif showcasing the artsy interiors, filled with hanging or mural-painted artworks, sculptural furniture, plants, and vibrant colors, of a resort's suite and concept store.
For his new collaboration with Mount Nelson, Magugu created "spaces that are not only beautiful, but purposeful and rooted in place".
(Image credit: Courtesy of Studio Landt, Inge Prins, and Mount Nelson, a Belmond Hotel. Design: Thebe Magugu)

There is an ongoing fling between the arts and the hotel design scene. And judging by South African fashion designer Thebe Magugu's latest contributions to the Cape Town-cool retreat Mount Nelson, this flirtation isn't going anywhere in 2026. But hotel stays centered on creativity aren't the only things set to be huge this year — so is genre-defying design in interiors.

A kaleidoscope of color, texture, and pattern, the Thebe Magugu Suite and the Thebe Magugu House Cape Town embrace spaces that translate the multifacetedness of South Africa into eclectic, layered design. Since founding his namesake label in 2016, Kimberly-born Magugu, who won the 2019 LVMH Young Fashion Designer Prize, has emerged within culture's peakiest realm by combining South African heritage and a global outlook in his work, including in acclaimed collaborations with the likes of Pierpaolo Piccioli's Valentino, Adidas, and Dior.

Now, with the Thebe Magugu Suite and the Thebe Magugu House Cape Town, which mark the creative's foray into luxury hospitality design, a new chapter for him and Mount Nelson, a Belmond Hotel, has begun. Spoiler: it'll have the best design hotels in the world reconsider what time off should look like, and even convince you that, yes, you should have gone bolder with your home choices.

A series of shots capturing a young man dressed in patterned, or color-blocky, clothing, either standing in the sun-lit outdoor areas of a lush hotel, or inside a colorfully decorated suite filled with collectibles, artworks, and textural touches, or the interiors of that very space.

After platforming Magugu's uncompromisingly bold creations during the annual sustainable fashion CONFECTIONS x COLLECTIONS showcase of African brands, the Mount Nelson resort just got two permanent Magugu-coded locations.

(Image credit: Courtesy of Inge Prins and Mount Nelson, a Belmond Hotel. Design: Thebe Magugu)

A deeply tactile, two-story retreat nestled along Mount Nelson, a Belmond Hotel's lush Palm Avenue, the Thebe Magugu Suite lands exactly ten years after his eponymous brand began to take his vision down the runway. And, even just from the nature-inspired color palette and the brave design choices that set its interiors apart from bland hotel stays, it is easy to see how Magugu is coming full circle.

Wood-toned, palladiana terrazzo, and tiled flooring alternate through its grounds. Spectacular, hand-carved wooden furniture strikes the balance between form and function. Vivid murals, paintings, and a plethora of photographs let South Africa's heritage shine through every nook, while patterned rugs and occasional animalier touches add a quirky, at times sensual, element to the mix.

Afro-Modernism Meets British Eccentricity

A series of shots capturing a young man dressed in patterned, or color-blocky, clothing, either standing in the sun-lit outdoor areas of a lush hotel, or inside a colorfully decorated suite filled with collectibles, artworks, and textural touches, or the interiors of that very space.

A glimpse inside the Thebe Magugu Suite entrance and guest bathroom.

Image credit: Courtesy of Inge Prins and Mount Nelson, a Belmond Hotel. Design: Thebe Magugu

A series of shots capturing a young man dressed in patterned, or color-blocky, clothing, either standing in the sun-lit outdoor areas of a lush hotel, or inside a colorfully decorated suite filled with collectibles, artworks, and textural touches, or the interiors of that very space.

The living room area of Mount Nelson, a Belmond Hotel's Thebe Magugu-coded guestsuite.

Image credit: Courtesy of Inge Prins and Mount Nelson, a Belmond Hotel. Design: Thebe Magugu

Drawing on the legacy of the movement that, beginning in the 1950s in now-leading capitals like Lagos, saw newly independent African countries embrace art and architecture as a means of affirming their cultural sovereignty in the eyes of colonial powers, the designer conjures up an oasis of craftsmanship where South Africa's distinctive aesthetic and identity come to life through design.

A series of shots capturing a young man dressed in patterned, or color-blocky, clothing, either standing in the sun-lit outdoor areas of a lush hotel, or inside a colorfully decorated suite filled with collectibles, artworks, and textural touches, or the interiors of that very space.

A detail of the luxurious bar within the Thebe Magugu Suite.

(Image credit: Courtesy of Inge Prins and Mount Nelson, a Belmond Hotel. Design: Thebe Magugu)

Earthy browns root the suite in the rugged landscape of Cape Town, echoed via the organic textures of wool, cotton, straw, marble, and stone, and omnipresent wood. Oxblood and terracotta hues heighten moments of sociality — in the dining area — or exclusive intimacy — in the guest bathroom.

While a series of compelling depictions of African life by Mmangaliso Nzuza, Lulama Wolf, Zandile Tshabalala, and Trevor Stuurman, among others, co-curated by contemporary African art specialist Julia Buchanan in collaboration with Magugu, captures subjects immersed in nature, and vignettes of rituality and care: two themes also central in the designer's bespoke in-suite bath amenities and custom-developed tea offerings which, "guided by healing, heritage, and spitirual lineage", make for an outstanding sleep tourism sojourn.

Across its two floors, the nuanced artisanry of South African makers like wallpaper and fabric designer Cara Saven, custom-made rug weavers Rugalia and Crayon Artel, and woodworker Ken Leinman, makes the Thebe Magugu Suite into a masterpiece not just to look at, but to feel; to touch.

A series of shots capturing a young man dressed in patterned, or color-blocky, clothing, either standing in the sun-lit outdoor areas of a lush hotel, or inside a colorfully decorated suite filled with collectibles, artworks, and textural touches, or the interiors of that very space.

As if the interiors weren't enough, the crafty accommodation comes with its own nostalgic balcony.

Image credit: Courtesy of Inge Prins and Mount Nelson, a Belmond Hotel. Design: Thebe Magugu

A series of shots capturing a young man dressed in patterned, or color-blocky, clothing, either standing in the sun-lit outdoor areas of a lush hotel, or inside a colorfully decorated suite filled with collectibles, artworks, and textural touches, or the interiors of that very space.

The cherry red-tinted bathroom of the Thebe Magugu Suite.

Image credit: Courtesy of Inge Prins and Mount Nelson, a Belmond Hotel. Design: Thebe Magugu

Looking around, it's evident Magugu views art and design, their ability to uplift and foster a sense of place, peace, and belonging, as integral to everyday life. Something the designer conveys beautifully in the crafting of his ancestrally informed garments, which he has previously referred to as "modern relics."

It's a philosophy that reminds me of London's Bloomsbury Group, the 20th-century circle of writers, artists, and intellectuals who, including figures like Virginia Woolf, Vanessa Bell, and Duncan Grant, gravitated between the district of the same name and the Sussex country retreat of Charleston Farmhouse, where Bell and Grant lived, embracing writing, furniture-making, and other artistic disciplines as an all-ecompassing pursuit.

A series of shots capturing a young man dressed in patterned, or color-blocky, clothing, either standing in the sun-lit outdoor areas of a lush hotel, or inside a colorfully decorated suite filled with collectibles, artworks, and textural touches, or the interiors of that very space.

"A Reverence Like No Other" by artist Mmangaliso Nzuza, as seen in the entrance lounge of the Thebe Magugu Suite at Mount Nelson, a Belmond Hotel.

(Image credit: Courtesy of Inge Prins and Mount Nelson, a Belmond Hotel. Design: Thebe Magugu)

Bringing South Africa's heritage to the world and the world itself to Cape Town, the Thebe Magugu Suite invites guests to do something similar with their leisure time.

Its walls, too, are painted in colors and murals that expand the beauty of its surroundings, as with those of Charleston Farmhouse. Like that creative workshop of literature and craftsmanship, the new Mount Nelson accommodation transforms domestic rooms into breathable, textural artworks, bridging the distance between its South African base and Belmond's English sensibility.

Magugu House Cape Town

A series of shots capturing a young man dressed in patterned, or color-blocky, clothing, either standing in the sun-lit outdoor areas of a lush hotel, or inside a colorfully decorated suite filled with collectibles, artworks, and textural touches, or the interiors of that very space.

Debuting at Mount Nelson, a Belmond Hotel, alongisde the Thebe Magugu Suite, Magugu House Cape Town is a cultural salon and platform for "limited-edition fashion, archival garments, art, photography, books, and objects".

(Image credit: Courtesy of StudioLandt and Mount Nelson, a Belmond Hotel. Design: Thebe Magugu with StudioLandt)

Adjacent to the suite, Magugu House Cape Town opens as "a living platform for cultural exchange," the designer and the Mount Nelson team explain.

Alive with color, talent, and storytelling, this space was created in collaboration with StudioLandt, and broadens the vision behind the Thebe Magugu Suite through curated, limited-edition fashion, archival garments, art, photography, books, and objects, and a rotating multidisciplinary programme.

By Our Own Hands (through April), the address's inaugural group exhibition, is a partnership with Southern Guild, one of the country's leading art galleries and a regular Frieze London protagonist.

A series of shots capturing a young man dressed in patterned, or color-blocky, clothing, either standing in the sun-lit outdoor areas of a lush hotel, or inside a colorfully decorated suite filled with collectibles, artworks, and textural touches, or the interiors of that very space.

Magugu House Cape Town's inaugural exhibition, "By Our Own Hands", gathers some of South Africa's most influential artists in a conversation of the hidden value of making.

Image credit: Courtesy of StudioLandt and Mount Nelson, a Belmond Hotel. Design: Thebe Magugu with StudioLandt

A series of shots capturing a young man dressed in patterned, or color-blocky, clothing, either standing in the sun-lit outdoor areas of a lush hotel, or inside a colorfully decorated suite filled with collectibles, artworks, and textural touches, or the interiors of that very space.

It positions the act of creating objects and other artifacts as a platform for wider cultural change and empowerment, zooming in on South Africa's story through sculpture, photography, and ceramics.

Image credit: Courtesy of StudioLandt and Mount Nelson, a Belmond Hotel. Design: Thebe Magugu with StudioLandt

The show focuses on making as a means of reclaiming and affirming one's identity, a pathway to healing, and a form of resistance, reuniting some of South Africa's most thought-provoking artists, including image-maker Zanele Muholi and potter Zizipho Poswa.

Together with a captivating calendar of film screenings, creative pop-ups, and roundtables, the Mount Nelson, a Belmond Hotel's initiative reinvents hotels as a place for inspiration and pressing conversations, rather than mere relaxation. Could resortcore be the way forward in laying the ground for a collective cultural renaissance?

A series of shots capturing a young man dressed in patterned, or color-blocky, clothing, either standing in the sun-lit outdoor areas of a lush hotel, or inside a colorfully decorated suite filled with collectibles, artworks, and textural touches, or the interiors of that very space.

Thebe Magugu's SS26 Alchemy II collection, shot by Zimbabwean photographer Tatenda Chidora.

(Image credit: Courtesy of StudioLandt and Mount Nelson, a Belmond Hotel. Design: Thebe Magugu with StudioLandt)

Book your stay in the Thebe Magugu Suite at Mount Nelson, a Belmond Hotel.

In for more transportative travel adventures grounded in design? Discover the Oscar-worthy Celia, the new train carriage of Belmond's British Pullman, crafted by partners in work and life and seasoned Hollywood insiders Catherine Martin and Baz Luhrmann.

Gilda Bruno
Gilda Bruno
Lifestyle Editor

Gilda Bruno is Livingetc's Lifestyle Editor. Before joining the team, she worked as an Editorial Assistant on the print edition of AnOther Magazine and as a freelance Sub-Editor on the Life & Arts desk of the Financial Times. Between 2020 and today, Gilda's arts and culture writing has appeared in a number of books and publications including Apartamento’s Liguria: Recipes & Wanderings Along the Italian Riviera, Sam Wright’s debut monograph The City of the Sun, The British Journal of Photography, DAZED, Document Journal, Elephant, The Face, Family Style, Foam, Il Giornale dell’Arte, HUCK, Hunger, i-D, PAPER, Re-Edition, VICE, Vogue Italia, and WePresent.