A Towel for Everyone

It’s a little insider secret that when you join the Mungo team, you get to pick a Mungo towel to take home. #perksofthejob

After agonising over which bath&beach beauty to call my own, I selected the Summer Towel.

In classy cobalt it’d seemed the perfect colour pop for my all-white bathroom. Besides the striking blue, I loved how soft it was to the touch. It’s also super lightweight – making it easy to roll up for a trip to the beach or a sneaky sleepover.

This got me thinking, what are the Mungo team’s top towel picks? Which to-dry-for towel makes bath or beach time a pleasure?

This is what the Mungo team had to say.

The Itawuli

I have mostly Itawuli at home. I love the diamond pattern and different colourways, because they remind me of Shweshwe fabric and of hot days playing in the street. My best childhood memory is going to the beach for the first time on New Year’s Day with my mom. It was hot, colourful and noisy – the crashing surf, seagulls overhead and the sound of laughter. The Itawuli is just like that – loud and fun. I smile every time I use one.

When we have traditional ceremonies at home, I use an Itawuli to wrap around my waist. With some make (calamine dots on my face) I’m good to go!

Jonica, Mungo Plett Shop Manager

The Hooded Summer Towel

Humairaa in the hot pink Hooded Summer Towel. What a cutie!

When I started at Mungo, my little princess Humairaa was just 6 months old. She was my first girl and I’d just fallen in love with pink. So I chose the Hot Pink Summer Towel and absolutely loved it for bath time. Now I own 4 Summer Towels and Humairaa has her own Hot Pink Hooded Summer Towel. Seems we like the same!

We recently went camping (well actually glamping as it was in a caravan at Goudini Spa) and took our Blue Moon Itawuli. Not only were we looking fancy at the pool side but it made an awesome summer blanket in the heat…

Fatima, Mungo Cape Town Retail

The Folly Beach Towel

I love the Folly Towel because it’s a ‘lemonade out of lemons’ story. It came out of a mistake – which actually caused a bit of mayhem at Mungo! Because it was a result of ‘weaver’s folly’, we called it the Folly Towel. But I was also in Charleston at the time, and there’s a beach there called Folly Beach. So it’s also about bringing South Africa to America and building that relationship. It’s a towel with a story and I like that. It turned into something beautiful in the end.

Dax, Managing Director

The Dhow Towel

Hanging around camp with the Dhow Towel

I am an adventure hiker. Since I have moved to Plettenberg Bay I have done several hikes, including the Otter Trail, Tsitsikamma and recently the highest peak in the Western Cape – the Seweweekspoort Piek. When hiking these long trails you don’t want to waste space with bulky towels. The Dhow is perfect because it doesn’t take up too much space and it dries quickly, which means you don’t have a damp smelly towel in your hiking bag!

Linen towels are durable and very absorbent. When the towel is pressed against the skin, it dries up at once (good news for hikers getting out of the cold showers at the overnight camps)

Lenore, Mungo designer

The Belgian Waffle Towel

I chose the Belgian Waffle. It is definitely the best towel I have ever owned. It feels like luxury – I will never buy a terry cloth towel again. The Belgian Waffle is probably the most popular here at the Charleston store. In America, people aren’t used to flat-weave towels, so they automatically gravitate toward the waffle weave.

However, I just had to buy a South Kikoi. I think the reason why I sell so many of them is because I love mine so much. Honestly, I wear it as a skirt out for happy hour drinks and dinner, I’ve used it as a towel and cover-up at the beach, and when it isn’t being used on my body, it can be seen on my sofa, adding a bit of colour to my living room. It’s so versatile, and I am always looking for new ways to use it! I’ve been watching videos on how to wear headwraps, so that’s next on my list of things to try with my kikoi. I nabbed one in the rock pool colourway, and it’s just so pretty I can’t stand it!

Rachel Neil, Mungo Charleston shop manager

Read more about Rachel and her creative collab with the Mungo Mill here.

The Itawuli

The main reason why I took the iTawuli in African Sunset was because it’s huge so it would be the perfect size for a big girl like me. The other reason is that although it is a bath sheet, it’s excellent for the beach as well – and I LOVE the beach – or when I’m just lazing around the poolside. That striking African Sunset colour gives it such a fun, sunny, Hakuna Matata feel. I also have an array of swimsuits that would go perfectly with it! It sets a mood by just being.

Khanyi, Cape Town Retail

The Folly Beach Towel

My son Andrew, his friend Cameron, Cherilee and I visited Mauritius earlier this year. Cherilee and I each took along a Folly (plus kikois) and oh boy I will never travel anywhere again without a Mungo towel!

We used them every day and even Andrew bagged mine for a while when we were out cruising.  

Many memories made.

Caroline, Administrative Manager

The Mungo Huck

My favourite towel is also our thinnest towel – the Mungo Huck. I took one with me when I hiked the Otter Trail. It folded up tiny in my backpack and dried super quick hung over a bush every afternoon. My fellow hikers took fancy science-y ‘microfiber’ towels and every single one of them complained! (see more of our Otter Trail-inspired range here)

Craig – Mungo, ‘The Web Guy’

The Tawulo

It’s hard to choose! I always have a new ‘favourite’ so if you ask me again in a few months you might get a different answer. I love how bright and playful the Folly towel is. It reminds me of a Rothko painting. 

The Tawulo has also been a consistent love affair. Stu once explained the story behind it and I think it really highlights it’s uniqueness. It was his fascination with the details of textile crafts led him to this product. He was trying to replicate an old West African tradition of weaving together exotic yarns obtained by unravelling the cloth brought to the region by traders. Stu found a way to reproduce this textured look and feel on the Dornier machines by rolling the weft yarn in the weaving process. The result is that no two towels ever come out quite the same. Talk about unique! 

Lilah, Mungo Media and Marketing

Final tally? It looks like the Itawuli and Folly come in neck-and-neck for this poll. We’d love to hear your vote. Let us know your favourite Mungo towel in the comments below.

Or share your towel stories with us on Instagram and Facebook with the hashtag #mungotowelstory to win a Mungo gift voucher.

Happy towelling!