Potrends

For Faith Akali a collection rarely starts with fabric. It starts with a story. Founded in Johannesburg in 2019, Potrends is a menswear label where narrative comes first: a hand-drawn illustration, sketched by Faith or born out of collaboration with a local artist, becomes the seed of an entire collection, later developed into an exclusive textile. Other collections take the opposite path, built up through silhouette and material first, letting the story reveal itself through the making rather than announcing it upfront.

That back-and-forth between image and craft is what gives Potrends its personality. Drawing from Pan-African culture and the small, unexpected beauty of everyday life, the label works in hand-selected soft cottons and eco-friendly inks, shaped through refined tailoring rather than left raw. Much of what Potrends makes is produced in small batches or to order — a rhythm that keeps the brand close to its materials and its people, sourcing through trusted local suppliers and working alongside artisans whose skill becomes part of the story each collection tells.

The brand’s authenticity has carried it further than Johannesburg. In 2024, Potrends partnered with Lufthansa, an opportunity that put its work in front of an international audience and marked a meaningful step in its growing reach. Still a young house by design, Potrends treats every collection less as a seasonal release and more as another chapter — one sketch, one silhouette, one collaborator at a time.