#doDifferent: From Two Old Looms to a Movement
We all know that feeling when you wrap yourself in something truly beautiful - a towel with just the right weight, a throw that drapes perfectly over the couch, a kikoi that looks as good at the braai as it does at the beach. That feeling of quality. Now imagine that the very same product is also creating jobs, funding swimming lessons for township kids, supporting animal welfare, and keeping traditional weaving skills alive in South Africa. That's not a fantasy. That's Mungo.
Enter Mungo, a South African homeware textile company with a heart as big as its looms. They're not just weaving beautiful things - they're weaving opportunity, sustainability, and community into the very fabric of what they do.
Every great South African story starts somewhere modest. Mungo's began in 1998, when Master Weaver Stuart Holding came into possession of two restored antique looms. From an old barn near Plettenberg Bay - what he lovingly called his 'working weaving museum' - Stuart wove limited runs of beautiful homeware textiles while passersby watched through the windows. His wife Janet sold the pieces in her shop next door. Demand quickly outstripped supply.
Fast-forward to today, and Mungo has grown from a one-man operation into a family of over 100 people, with their own purpose-built mill at Old Nick Village in Plettenberg Bay, four stores across South Africa, and websites serving customers in the EU and USA. But here's what's remarkable: the foundational values have never changed. Mungo still puts people, their livelihoods, and the planet at the heart of everything they do. And those two original antique looms? Still going strong.
In 2017, Mungo fulfilled a long-cherished dream: building their own mill on the grounds of Old Nick Village, steps away from Stuart's original barn and right next door to their flagship store. But what makes the Mungo Mill truly extraordinary isn't just what it produces - it's how openly it operates.
The entire mill is open to the public. Visitors can walk through and see exactly how their textile is made, from raw fibre to finished product. In a world where 'made in South Africa' is often just a label, Mungo invites you to witness it for yourself. It's loud, it's intricate, and it's breathtakingly beautiful.
In 2019, Mungo went even further, becoming South Africa's first GOTS-certified weaving mill - certified to the Global Organic Textile Standard, the world's leading standard for organic textile processing. This certification assures environmentally and socially responsible practices across the entire supply chain, from the harvesting of raw materials to the finished product. It's not just a badge; it's a commitment.
Mungo sources quality natural fibres - cotton, linen, and organic cotton - and constructs fabrics to stand the test of time. In a throwaway culture, they're deliberately doing the opposite: making things that are meant to last a lifetime.
In March 2019, Mungo launched MOVE - their CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) programme - and committed to donating 1% of their annual turnover to initiatives that benefit the Plettenberg Bay area and its surrounding communities. Inspired by B-Corp principles, MOVE supports a triple bottom line: People, Planet, and Profit.
It's not a once-off campaign or a feel-good hashtag. It's baked into how Mungo operates, every financial year, without fail. Here's a taste of what that looks like in practice:
Since 2021, Mungo has hosted an annual 5-day Swim Challenge across locations in the Garden Route and Cape Town. Participants take a cold early-morning dip each day for five consecutive days, wrapping up in - what else - a Mungo towel. By 2025, the Swim Club has raised R375,700 for various NGOs, including Waves for Change, the I AM WATER Foundation, Cultural Connections, Natures Valley Trust, and Adopt a Swimmer.
These aren't abstract charity names. Adopt a Swimmer funds swimming lessons for at-risk and economically disadvantaged youth. I AM WATER hosts Ocean Guardian Workshops for young people in Plettenberg Bay and Knysna, fostering a love for the marine environment. Every swim, every towel, every early morning - it all adds up to something real.
Each year, Mungo welcomes a class from The Crags Primary School to the Mungo Mill for a behind-the-scenes tour and a hands-on textile design workshop. Under the guidance of Mungo's team, each student creates their own unique kikoi design. The community then votes for their favourite, and the winning design is brought to life on the looms. One hundred percent of the proceeds from the sale of that kikoi go directly to funding an additional teacher at the Crags Primary School.
It's education, creativity, community, and economic support all rolled into one beautiful piece of woven fabric. These children don't just learn about textiles - they create a product that makes a tangible difference to their school.
At Mungo, they love animals - and they put their money where their heart is. In 2024, to mark Mandela Day, Mungo sold a run of Juno Dog Blankets online, raising R13,400 for Muddy Pooches and R11,400 for PAWS (Plettenberg Bay Animal Welfare Society). The funds go directly towards sterilisations and animal welfare programmes. They've also repurposed mill offcuts to create comfortable dog beds donated to shelters.
The Toy Project is a social enterprise offering skills development and income to women in rural communities near Plettenberg Bay. Mungo donates fabric offcuts from the mill, and the women of the project transform them into charming handcrafted animal toys. Mungo then buys the finished toys back and sells them in their stores and online. Zero waste. Real income. Beautiful product.
MOVE's community support goes deeper still. There's a monthly donation for food parcels to New Beginnings and Born Free Ministries in Plettenberg Bay. There are plans underway to transform a vandalised building in Kurland Village into a vibrant community centre. Mungo operates two 30-seater buses to ferry their production team to and from work every day - essential in an area where public transport is scarce - and they lend those buses to local sports teams and community projects. They support The Green Hearts in their work preventing child abuse and providing victim support.
And at Christmas, they made stockings from Double Cloth fabric offcuts, sewn by a staff member who completed one of Mungo's own internal sewing workshops years earlier, and filled them with gifts for the children of the Kranshoek community. That's the Mungo way: skills developed in-house, rippling outward into the community.
Mungo's team spans design, weaving and production, administration, marketing, and retail stores. Many weavers were trained from scratch, working their way up from apprentices to full-fledged machine operators. Some were trained by Stuart himself, nearly 30 years ago. Seamstresses learned their craft through formal education or had it passed down through family. Together, they're not just making products - they're building careers, livelihoods, and legacies in the Garden Route economy.
MOVE also works from the inside out: Mungo staff members form part of the MOVE committee, addressing community needs and driving lasting change. Life skills training, gardening workshops, and sewing workshops are offered internally - with the goal of extending those skills to the broader community over time.
By choosing Mungo for your home textiles - whether it's a gorgeous flat-weave bath towel, a linen tablecloth that will outlast every trend, or a kikoi that doubles as everything from beach wrap to picnic blanket - you're directly supporting their extraordinary work. Every purchase helps fund the Swim Club, the Kids of Kurland, animal welfare, community support, and a vision of manufacturing that defies the race to the bottom.
You can shop online, visit one of their four stores in South Africa (Plettenberg Bay, Cape Town, High Constantia, Stellenbosch, and Johannesburg), or better yet - tour the mill in person and see exactly how your textile is born.
Together, let's choose differently. Let's buy things that are built to last, made with care, and stitched through with purpose. Because a world where businesses put people and planet first - and still make beautiful things - is absolutely the world we want to live in.
