Yoliswa Mqoco’s captivating celebration of African fashion and beauty while fostering inclusivity has established her as a prominent figure in the global industry
If you’ve had a peek at Yoliswa Mqoco’s online output, you’ll see someone who effortlessly blends African cultural influences with contemporary fashion trends. Her content features striking photo shoots, swoon-worthy make-up looks and capsule wardrobe inspiration presented with a unique South African flair.
Voted Glamour magazine’s 2022 Fashion Game-Changer, Yoliswa is known for her well-curated fashion choices, impeccable sense of style, beauty expertise and dynamic social media presence. Her authentic personality and ability to conjure visually stunning content quickly has attracted a devoted following of thousands of enthusiasts, beauty aficionados and celebrities around the world.
It almost didn’t happen. After matric, Yoliswa Mqoco strayed into HR for two years before leaving to follow her heart and do a fashion degree at LISOF (now called Stadio School of Fashion). More than a decade later, the digital entrepreneur and style icon has worked with a number of top brands like Nivea, Revlon, MAC, Clinique, designer fragrance and jewellery brands – and the list keeps growing.
Where does your passion for fashion stem from?
At my core, I’m just a girl who’s obsessed with 50s and 80s fashion. However, it’s crippling knowing that the South African fashion industry is still behind, in its weak strides for progression and inclusivity of all bodies.
But I will say this: just because I have a fat body doesn’t mean my work has to be centred around it by default. The work I do has nothing to do with my body and the size of it. I’m not a body-positivity activist. I’m not a plus-size model. I’m not plus-size anything.
These labels continue to ‘other’ me, alienate me from my peers in the industry and, quite frankly, distract from the work that I actually do. Among creating art and visual storytelling with clothing, I really just dress to impress – that’s it! I have a body that I love deeply and live every day to dress it to the nines. Let’s celebrate that and nothing else.
What message do you want your content to carry?
Limits do not exist! This really speaks to doing and being whatever and whoever you want to be, to the highest degree. Loving yourself without limits and living the best possible life you can live – from what you wear to where you dine to how you see yourself and love others – it should all just be beyond limits because you and everyone around you deserves the best!
How do you keep your feed so eye-catching?
My love for the arts, aesthetics and living a beautiful life just keeps me going. I see beauty in any and every thing, so there’s always inspiration around me, which directly translates into my content and feed. The fact that I get to positively affect people’s daily lives through visual storytelling, and knowing I have such a supportive online following, makes being a digital content creator all the more rewarding. Social media can be a weird place.
Creators often go where the current takes them and completely lose sight of who they are and where they come from. That’s why it’s so important to me to always embrace my good taste, sharp eye and the ability to make my own waves, start my own trends and exist divinely in my individuality.
Who inspires you most?
Words will never suffice in my attempts to encapsulate how incredible my mom is, especially when I was a child growing up. My mom taught me everything I know about the beautiful world of clothing and fashion. I remember my mom telling me I could be whoever I wanted to be in a good outfit – and, once in it, I would have no choice but to love myself.
That always stuck with me. So, clothing is not just clothing to me, it’s the foundation of why I ended up having such high self-esteem. I always looked good so I always felt good. That’s the core of it all.
What are your favourite beauty aesthetics?
I believe in re-imagining the familiar and welcoming the unexpected in all avenues of life. Anyone who knows me well knows how much I adore editorial make-up looks over the usual soft-glam make-up.
It’s also such a moment when a black woman is in a perfect nude lipstick… there’s nothing quite like it! In terms of hair, no hairstyle has had me in a chokehold through the years quite like a dark blunt bob. It’s always been a convenient and safe choice for me, and has worked in every stage of my many fashion transitions.
What’s your biggest career goal?
To expand my personal brand into the homes of South Africans in the form of my own clothing line, which will be made for all femme bodies.
FAST FACTS
Full name:
Yoliswa Mqoco
Birthday:
13 May 1992
Hometown:
Centurion, Pretoria
Pet peeve:
Bad-mannered, pompous people
Favourite colours:
White and gold
Addicted to:
Ice cream
Quote you live by:
“In this life we are either kings or pawns, emperors or fools.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
Words by: Charndré Emma Kippie
Photos: Supplied
