Business

The woman who used R10,000 to create a clothing brand that now makes R540,000 per month

Kirsten Minnaar • 17 October 2026

Alexa Schempers founded the clothing brand Rethread with R10,000 in savings. Today, it is generating R6.5 million in sales.

The Cape Town-based business, which started as a student project, is now targeting R10 million in annual sales and attracting the attention of international celebrities.

Schempers was born in Pretoria and grew up in Knysna before moving to Cape Town at 15 to attend boarding school.

Speaking on The Inside Show, she explained that her interest in clothing stemmed from her mother, a fashion designer.

Even though she wanted to pursue fashion design, her mother encouraged her to focus on the business side of the industry.

So, she completed a BCom degree at the University of Cape Town before moving to Amsterdam to obtain her Master’s in fashion enterprise.

The course focused on entrepreneurship in the fashion industry. Students developed business ideas while learning about subjects such as finance and marketing.

Schempers initially planned to build a service that helps influencers sell second-hand designer clothing on online marketplaces. However, she soon realised the work did not offer the creativity she wanted.

“I’d been testing the idea, and I was like, ‘I really hate this.’ All I’m doing is photographing clothes and uploading it,” she said.

Everything changed when Schempers and her classmates were given the opportunity to work with students from the London College of Fashion, which allowed her to bring her design ideas to life for the first time.

Her concept revolved around upcycling, the process of taking old, discarded, or waste materials and transforming them into new, higher-quality products.

Designers can take a garment apart and use its fabric to create a new piece, or alter the original garment through cutting, embellishment, and other changes.

Although this trend was already popular in Europe, it had not yet taken off in South Africa. This became a problem when she returned to Knysna for a two-week visit, but became stuck due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Schempers still wanted to continue the project, but did not have the sewing skills to create the clothing items herself.

Luckily, she found a Dutch woman running a clothing alteration shop in Knysna. The woman had experience in the fashion industry and understood upcycling. She agreed to produce samples for Schempers.

After she graduated, Schempers launched Rethread, using a Shopify website to sell the first collection.

Building a fashion brand

The start of the business was not easy. She had managed to save R10,000 during her overseas studies, which she put towards starting the business.

The first collection was small, consisting of 10 pieces, including redesigned men’s suits, jackets, and shirts. It was well received, especially by people in the industry, who were excited to see something “fresh”.

However, it was a long time before Rethread became profitable. Schempers continued to fund the business through income from freelance social media marketing work.

She reinvested all the money she could into the brand for its first three and a half years, spending it on stock, photoshoots, and other business costs.

Schempers also taught herself how to use Meta’s advertising tools. Social media helped the business grow and reach new audiences.

One of the brand’s major milestones came when American media personality Julia Fox wore its designs. Schempers said the exposure helped change how people viewed the small South African label.

Another important step was getting stocked at AKJP Studio on Kloof Street in Cape Town.

She described the retail partnership as a business turning point because it provided more consistent sales, which can be difficult for a young clothing brand to establish.

While growth was slow in the initial years, the business is now gaining momentum quickly. Year-to-date, the company has achieved R6.5 million in sales.

While Rethread was initially aiming for R8.5 million, Schempers said they are now hoping to reach R10 million, which would represent 55% growth compared to the previous year.

While more than half of the business’s sales come from its online store, Rethread also operates an appointment-based showroom in Cape Town.

The brand holds events at the showroom, runs two annual pop-ups at Fabric Hunter in Johannesburg, and is still stocked at AKJP Studio.

After running the business mostly by herself for years, Schempers is now also in charge of a six-person team. She explained that this bigger team has created more capacity for growth going forward.

Rethread does not have plans to open a permanent store, but Schempers said she would like to establish one in Johannesburg to serve its customer base there.

The longer-term goal is to expand the brand’s international reach through online sales, overseas boutiques, and pop-up events.