Kids of Kurland Kikoi 2021 - A Kikoi for a Cause

In 2018, through extensive workshopping with our staff, we created an organization within Mungo called, MOVE.

Through MOVE we donate 1% of our annual turnover towards projects and initiatives that seek to benefit and empower the Plettenberg Bay area – where our mill and entire production process is based.

Born from this idea to meaningfully give back, we launched the Kids of Kurland Kikoi Project in 2018. Each year we host a class of students from the Crags Primary School for a mill tour and workshop in textile design. Under the guidance of our designer, Lenore, and MOVE coordinator, Janet, each student is given the chance to design their own kikoi colourway – of which a winning design is added to our range and sold in aid of the Kids of Kurland Project.

The day’s workshop begins with a tour of the Mungo Mill, where the students witness the weaving process firsthand.

With a demo from our weaving supervisor, Nicolette, the students learn the ins and outs of the looms – from the picks, pirns and pattern cards, to the warp, weft and weaving itself.

A view of CMT also demonstrates how the final product is finished – where our deft cutters, seamstresses and steamers add the finishing touches.

A last stop takes the students into the Mungo flagship store. Here the students can see the end result of the production line – from witnessing the product come to life on the loom, and then ready for the shelves in store.

Next stop is the design workshop.

Working with Lenore, the groups gets to grips with the foundations of colour theory, the basics of fabric design and the process of dyeing yarn.

Taking inspiration from magazines and cones of yarn at hand, the students begin designing, and naming, their own striped colour combinations on graph paper.