Artist Database

Nicholas Coutts started out as a stylist and studied fashion at Cape Town’s Design Academy of Fashion. In his final year, he won the prestigious ELLE Magazine Rising Star 2013 award. The prize included a catwalk show at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Africa in Johannesburg and the opportunity to design a capsule collection for retailer Mr Price. In 2014, Nicholas established his eponymously named brand, which went on to feature in fashion shows and expos around the globe.

His hugely tactile textiles are handcrafted through spinning, weaving, knitting, and felting, a unique skill that Nicholas developed both with guidance from his grandmother and at The Philani Maternal, Child Health and Nutrition Trust. The trust is an NGO that addresses family, maternal, child health, and nutrition problems in the informal settlements outside Cape Town. It has a craft centre that includes weaving facilities, initiated by Jill Trappler in the early 1980’s.