Our Story Begins With Just Two Old Looms

In 1998 master weaver, Stuart Holding, started a passion project using two restored antique looms to weave limited runs of beautiful homeware textiles in what he called his 'working weaving museum', an old barn where passers-by could watch him work. He sold the resulting small textiles in his wife, Janet's shop. Soon demand outstripped supply and Mungo expanded production to a mill housed in an old dairy building a few kilometres away. Years later, things have changed; our team has grown to a family of over 60, we have left the cows behind, moved to our very own mill and we've opened stores in three South African cities. We are growing, however our fundamentals and our foundational values remain the same.

In 2017 the Mungo team fulfilled a long cherished dream; building our own mill on the grounds of Old Nick Village, near Stuart's original barn, and next door to our flagship store. The Mungo mill is a testament to our philosophy of transparency in the production process with the entire mill open to the public. You can read more about the mill and how we make our fabric here. And those two old looms? Still going strong.

The Ethos Behind Why We Do What We Do

Textile manufacturing throughout the World has become solely driven by economics. This means inferior yarn quality, less pay for workers and compromised working conditions. At Mungo we defy the status quo and endeavour to help shape and uphold the standards of sustainable production in a non industrial environment. We challenge the idea that value is a product of price. We don't compromise on production methods or cost of raw materials when it comes to producing a quality product.

We believe strongly that what we create and the manner in which we create it will filter down to the end user and help to improve the world we live in. We're using the art of weaving in a contemporary manner to create quality products for people to treasure.