Amplic fuses fashion, art and music

When art and music blend

’MAKERESEMESE LETUKA

MASERU – Mixing trending elements of emerging fashions with a tinge of art and music makes for strong and unique designs – and Amplic Clothing says it all. The clothing brand has emerged as an alternative to expensive high street fashion. Art and music are at the centre of the company, combining founder and designer Nhlapho Ben’s design talent, art, and music from across a broad spectrum to inspire and create more art that can be worn.

Nhlapho is looking forward to having a full-fledged production firm which will expose his merchandise to the international market. At only 21, and better known as September Belsina, the designer is originally from Butha-Buthe. He attended school at St Cyprian’s Primary School before going to Butha-Buthe High School before he later enrolled with the Limkokwing University of Creative Technology where he studied professional design.

“Design is who I am and who I have always been. I work with graphics, logo designs, posters, banners, billboards, etc, and I also do photography. I have my pages BelsiGraphy where I upload my work.

“The work that a lot of people know me about is in Amplic Clothing, which is the clothing brand I have been pushing for almost two years now. We first made our merchandise public on November 16, 2019, and have not stopped working ever since,” he says. “What inspired me to start on this label is the fact that I have always been into art, fashion and music, so I have always wanted something through which I could fuse all these into one. I conceptualised the idea of Amplic when I was in high school, in 2016.

“That is when I knew I wanted to own a clothing brand. I did not want a typical thing of buying and printing then selling, but basically something different, something that I could design and tailor myself.” Nhlapho says this is when he started conducting his research on clothing brands, looking for just about anything that he needed to know about the business.

He then then started saving money from his art sales, commissioning portraits through his BelsinaArts and photography bookings. He also used some of the funds he received from his tuition sponsorship from the National Manpower Development Secretariat (NMDS). Then a brand was born. Amplic is for every age group, he says, from kids to seniors; the clothing label has something for everyone, and he applauds the support the label has been getting so far, “it is just incredible.”

“It has given us the enthusiasm that we needed to keep going. The biggest setback we encountered has been the Covid-19 pandemic, we could not deliver with ease and our orders dwindled.” “I have had an interview with one of South Africa’s radio station called Hillbrow Radio 24/7, which gave Amplic exposure and exposed us to the market we needed in the country. We have delivered our merchandise to places like Durban, Cape Town, Pretoria, Johannesburg and eSwatini.

For me this is basically the start it is literally the tip of an iceberg; it’s just a small part of what I am trying to achieve with Amplic. If the Almighty God permits we are yet to go big,” he says. “I have always been a designer due to my excessive desire for art, but to enhance my abilities I went to the Limkokwing University of Creative Technology, and that’s where I was nurtured and ventured into being the designer I am today.

“I learnt just about anything I needed to create Amplic Clothing. I practice all I learned there and more to see Amplic become a success. Now that I am done schooling, I want to put all my efforts into the brand, to push it hard and also ensure my establishment of a production company so that we can create jobs and have more merchandise made.

“This is literally our biggest dream. I believe with all the support we are getting, we are going to get there,” he says. Amplic designs include Farag Pants, Farag Overalls, Farag Skirts, Limptic Combo, Reflective Jackets, and double Colour Combo, bucket Hats and Native Track pants.