NAKED APE’S ‘URBAN CAMO’ BRINGS BOTANICAL ALCHEMY AND STREET TAILORING TO SA FASHION WEEK
Johannesburg, 14 April 2025 - Following the acclaim of his Afro Monks collection, celebrated designer Shaldon Kopman returns to South African Fashion Week on 25 April 2025 with Urban Camo, a quietly powerful meditation on slow fashion. Through this new collection, Naked Ape reaffirms its position as a leader in conscious luxury, offering garments that not only challenge the wastefulness of fast fashion but are made with soul, intention, and an unwavering respect for nature.
Since founding Naked Ape in 2005, Kopman has remained consistent in his design philosophy: authentic African luxury, rooted in heritage, sustainability and the finest craftsmanship. Urban Camo continues that legacy with a thoughtful balance of fluid tailoring, raw beauty and a remarkable collaboration with botanical artist Ira Bekker, also known as The Botanical Nomad. The fabrics in this collection are the result of an extraordinary process that can only be described as nature’s own printmaking.
Bekker created bespoke textiles using leaves, branches and rusted metal objects sourced from her local environment. Each piece of fabric was wrapped, steamed, or cooked in pots filled with these materials, coaxing natural pigments from plants and iron to imprint ghost-like patterns and earthy tones onto raw silk, linen, hemp and cotton. Some leaves were used whole, others in geometric fragments, allowing for textures that shift between the organic and the architectural.
From fine tendrils to bold, mineral-rich blooms of rust, the result is a collection of surfaces that are deeply tactile, richly detailed and utterly unique. The botanical and rust dyeing process is completely sustainable—free of synthetic chemicals, water-heavy treatments or waste.
After the colours have been transferred, the leftover plant material is returned to the soil as compost and the rusted objects reused. This method, grounded in ancient African traditions of natural dyeing, speaks to a deeper philosophy that Naked Ape has championed for years: that beauty is not found by interrupting nature, but by working with it. Urban Camo reflects this harmony in both material and form. Signature Naked Ape silhouettes have been revisited—sharp tailoring softened by the flow of natural fabrics, trousers that hold structure yet move with ease and outerwear that feels at once commanding and effortless.
The palette is pulled from the natural world: bark browns, oxidized greys, leafy greens and sunwashed earth tones. Each garment, whether a raw silk jacket patterned with leaf silhouettes or a hemp coat dyed with iron-rich plant tannins, is a wearable piece of art that carries the spirit of place and process. This is camouflage reimagined—more about harmony with nature than concealment. It’s a reflection of how we blend into and connect with our environments—how fabric, skin, and the surroundings can exist in unity. As Kopman puts it, “Each piece in Urban Camo carries the DNA of our land. Its fashion made with the earth, not just inspired by it.”
In a world awash with fast fashion—an industry that contributes to over 10% of global carbon emissions and fills South African landfills with imported, discarded garments—Urban Camo stands as a quiet rebellion. It reminds us that clothing can be more than product. It can be a story. It can be a memory.
It can be a return to values that are slower, deeper and more meaningful. 2 Confidential - Not for Public Consumption or Distribution At a time when the fashion world is reckoning with its environmental impact and searching for authenticity, Naked Ape offers a clear and beautiful answer. Urban Camo is more than a collection—it’s an invitation to see fabric as something grown, nurtured and deeply lived in, rather than merely worn.
