A new suite. A new cultural space. And a rare chance to step inside one of South Africa’s most important creative minds.
Mount Nelson has unveiled a landmark collaboration with Thebe Magugu, marking the designer’s first move into luxury hospitality.
The project includes the newly opened Thebe Magugu Suite, a two-storey space set along the hotel’s Palm Avenue. It blends Magugu’s Afro-modernist vision with the Mount Nelson’s English heritage.
Next door, Magugu House Cape Town opens to the public. Part gallery, part concept store, it’s designed as a meeting point for fashion, art and ideas, with a focus on African creativity and the next generation shaping it.
This project has allowed me to explore how fashion can live beyond the body – extending into space and atmosphere. After two years of planning and production, the level of care is evident in the narrative layering, emotional backbone, and craftsmanship throughout. The result is a delicate balance between English grandeur and African sensuality,” says Thebe Magugu.
AN AFRO-MODERNIST SANCTUARY AMONGST THE PALMS
What sets this hotel apart is its intention to offer more than just a place to stay. Designed by Thebe Magugu in collaboration with StudioLandt, the Afro-modernist suite is shaped around shared rituals of gathering, dining and rest inviting guests to form a deeper connection to Cape Town and its creative spirit.
From the moment you arrive, the lower level welcomes you into an intimate lounge and dining space with a discreet wet bar, perfect for relaxed evenings or meaningful moments with others. Sculptural forms and locally crafted details bring a sense of place into every corner, making this a destination for travelers seeking culture, design and a truly immersive stay not just another hotel in the city.
Throughout, rotating artworks curated by Thebe Magugu in collaboration with co-curator Contemporary African Art Specialist, Julia Buchanan, their pure creative symbiosis transformed the space into a one-of-a-kind archive of South African expression, where art guides moments of rest and repose.
What makes this space worth experiencing is the way design and heritage are seamlessly woven into every detail. Upon arrival, guests are greeted by a bespoke dining pendant inspired by the Basotho hat which anchors the room in cultural storytelling while handcrafted chairs shaped by traditional pottery bring ancestral craft into daily life. The space unfolds into hand-sketched panoramic wallpaper that carries guests across South Africa’s landscapes from the Midlands to the Cape, immersing them in a story of place.
MAGUGU HOUSE CAPE TOWN: A SPACE FOR ART, FASHION, CULTURE AND EXCHANGE
Designed as a living cultural hub, the space unfolds through monthly film screenings, salon-style conversations, rotating exhibitions and curated gatherings inviting creatives into an ongoing exchange that places Mount Nelson at the centre of local and global creative dialogue.
The programme opens with a preview of Sonder, a documentary by Johannesburg-based composer and creative director Thuthuka Sibisi of Sibisi Studio and a close collaborator of Thebe Magugu, which explores the interior lives of Black Zulu men, tracing themes of brotherhood, desire, love and violence within systems shaped by apartheid-era masculinity. It forms part of the House’s wider programme designed to bring culture, conversation and creativity into the heart of the hotel.
At the heart of the experience is Magugu House’s dedication to contemporary African creativity. Its debut exhibition, By Our Own Hands, presented in partnership with Southern Guild features works by Zanele Muholi and Zizipho Poswa alongside Thebe Magugu’s approach to fashion as ritual practice. Shaped by the idea that making is an act of self-articulation, healing and resistance, the exhibition examines creative traditions rooted in cultural knowledge, lineage and intention. Everyday objects and found materials are reimagined as vessels of beauty and meaning, positioning this ingenuity as cultural authorship rather than mere survival.
The opening of the Thebe Magugu Suite and Magugu House Cape Town builds on Mount Nelson’s long-running relationship with Thebe Magugu through Confections x Collections. What started as a temporary runway moment now takes on a permanent form inside the hotel.
You can now visit MAGUGU HOUSE CAPE TOWN at Mount Nelson, open from Tuesday to Saturday from 10h00 – 18h00.
