Limkokwing University of Creative Technology (LUCT) fashion design lecturer, Thabo Tsepa has ventured into a business he has named ‘Thachofstyle’, which specialises in treating and restoring worn shoes to their original condition.
Tsepa has long been driven by a passion and love for fashion and he decided to come up with the ‘Thachofstyle’ concept in October 2022.
The name ‘Thatchofstyle’ comes from his name Thabo which is commonly nicknamed ‘Thibo Thach’. In the business sense it talks to his Midas touch which inspired the slogan ‘Rehabilitation with Thachofstyle’.
Tsepa narrated to theReporter in an interview this week how the whole idea came about.
“There was a time in my life when buying shoes was a struggle, so I thought, what would happen if I took a pair and could take one shoe and just change how it looks.
“However, when I met my first client the challenge was I didn’t know medium of paints that are appropriate for different fabrics of shoes. I remember using acrylic paint and the shoes started cracking off after some time and the client had to bring them back. Mind you this was my first client,” Tsepa recalled.
After learning from that mistake, he decided to study more on things like different types of paints to use since he was falling in love with the fact that he could change the shoes into different styles.
The slogan ‘shoe rehabilitation with the Thachofstyle means just that: rehabilitating, not customising.
“I strayed from the word ‘customising’ because I have realised a lot of people are customising, and that is not what I do. Just like anyone can go to a rehabilitation centre to get a new breath and meaning to life, that is exactly what I do with shoes.
“I give new meaning to shoes that are worn out. Due to lack of enough capital, my focus is still on changing colour or painting; otherwise I would love to change the entire shoe design,” he noted.
Tsepa observed that a lot of shoes come with faded paint quality. However, those are the shoes that everybody can afford because unlike in other countries Basotho are not that privileged to buy a new pair of shoes over time.
“The feedback from the clients is just crazy compared to when I started; the number of shoes I receive increases each day. Today as we speak I have about more than 90 pairs shoes waiting in my house. I had even decided to suspend orders for a month in order to finish the ones that I am already working on,” Tsepa said.
Taking us through the shoe rehabilitation process, first of all Tsepa has to consider the fabric of the shoe, shape, and suitable colour for the shoe as well as think of the creativity to apply.
“I have to ensure that the shoe is clean so that the paint can stick properly and not come off. I then apply the first coat of the paint which has to be as light as possible, and dry it before applying the second coat.
“What I do is more or less similar to how nails and makeup are done, just that I do it on shoes and it has to be flawless.
“My ambition with Thachofstyle is to develop a shoe that can answer to our demographics, that will answer our terrain in Lesotho. Ninety percent of the shoes we wear are not suitable to our terrain in Lesotho,” he concluded.
Tsepa can be contacted on +266 53235881 or +266 62566529. People can also find him at Matsoatlareng/ LUCT.
