Mungo is a South African textile brand based in Plettenberg Bay. In 1998, Janet and Stuart Holding started selling small batches of limited edition home textiles out of her shop. With fast growing demand, they soon launched Mungo as a brand with the guiding priciple to produce beautifully designed homeware textiles, woven with care for the community and the environment. All fibers are ethically sourced and fair-trade.

For Stuart Holding, weaving was a natural career path. He grew up in High Bentham, a small town in North Yorkshire, UK, where working in a mill was standard. At sixteen, he began a five-year apprenticeship at the Wenning Silk Mills, where he developed a deep respect for the craft. After settling down in Plettenburg Bay, he spent time training local yarn spinners and running creative workshops with his wife Janet.

Today, the brand is headed by Stuart and Janet´s two children: Tessa, who serves as their Creative Director, and Dax, who runs the more business side of things. Stuart and Janet are still involved in the production process and overall running of the brand.

FOUNDERS: Stuart and Janet Holding
TEAM: Over 100
LOCATION: Plettenburg, S.A.
MATERIALS: Cotton

At the heart of the brand is the Mill, which opened in 2017 with sixteen restored looms of three different sorts: The Lancashire Shuttle Looms, Ruti Looms and the Dornier Looms.

Each piece goes through a multi-step process from inception to finish. Pulling information from antique weaving books, designs are hand-drawn onto graph paper that is then fed into the loom. The threads are then set up in a process called warping. Depending on the width and thickness of yarn, the warp could have anything from 800 to 5000 threads. An average Mungo warp is about 500 to 1000 meters.

The warp is then transferred onto the loom where the weaving process begins. Each finished fabric is then inspected before it is dyed and washed, inspected again, and sewn into the gorgeous textiles Mungo is so known for.

Since March 2019, Mungo has pledged 1% of its annual turnover to initiatives that benefit the Plettenberg Bay area, and regularly run charitable events benefiting various NGOs.

All fibers of GOTS certified, meaning environmentally and socially responsible practices are ensured throughout the entire supply chain, right from the harvesting of the raw materials to the finished product.