Qalakabusha, "New Beginnings"
Icons relaunched.
As Ardmore celebrated its 40-year anniversary in 2025, it felt only fitting to revisit the collection where the Ardmore Home journey began. Qalakabusha, meaning “New Beginnings” in isiZulu, was our very first fabric range, launched in 2010.
In a world marked by uncertainty and constant change, this iconic body of work invites us to reconnect with the child within, embracing joy, curiosity, colour, and storytelling.
The Icons Collection is a vibrant and quirky reimagining of designs from the beloved Qalakabusha range. Whimsical and naïve, yet deeply symbolic, these artworks have been reinterpreted with fresh energy, bold colour, and renewed relevance. Steeped in story and imagination, they invite us to experience Ardmore’s world anew, playful on the surface, profound at its core.
At the heart of this collection is a tribute to one of Ardmore’s most revered legends: Wonderboy Nxumalo. A poet, philosopher, romantic, and storyteller, Wonderboy’s extraordinary talent and singular voice shaped some of the most powerful works in Ardmore’s history. Though he sadly passed away in 2008, his legacy continues to guide and inspire us.
Following his death, Wonderboy’s deeply personal HIV/AIDS awareness works were translated into a fabric design titled Wonderboy Wisdom, a moving homage to his handwritten words of guidance on how to live, love, and survive with dignity in the face of the disease. In these works, Wonderboy often used the monkey as a metaphor for humanity, a symbol that has since become synonymous with his artistic legacy.
Since its inception, Wonderboy Wisdom has been associated with intellectual depth and contemporary sophistication, finding a natural home in modern interiors, from New York lofts to collectors’ homes around the world. Over time, it has become an all-time Ardmore classic, a true embodiment of Living with Art. Fifteen years on, this iconic design has been reimagined and expanded.
With great joy, we proudly present, in fashion, the limited-edition Love Story silk scarf collection, inspired by Wonderboy’s iconic Love Story plate range. Alongside this, we are launching our first-ever wool-silk scarf, titled Wonderboy Wisdom.
Designed without gender limitation, yet thoughtfully created with our male customers in mind, this collection represents a new and deeply personal extension of the Wonderboy Wisdom fabric design. Here, maize plants, skulls, and soccer and gym rabbits advocate a healthy and happy African lifestyle.
Each scarf becomes a wearable canvas, honouring Wonderboy’s life and legacy, and celebrating a man whose creativity knew no bounds, and whose core value words continue to speak of hope, love, protection, courage, and humanity. The collection reflects Wonderboy’s own thoughtful, expressive masculinity and his belief that beauty, tenderness, and intellect belong to everyone.
We are also delighted to announce the global launch of Baobab, the Cole & Son x Ardmore wallpaper collection. Design Meets Art in this joyful celebration of South Africa’s iconic Baobab, the legendary “Tree of Life.” Across nine exuberant designs, regal cheetahs, graceful giraffes, and whimsical big cats inhabit lush, fantastical landscapes, bringing Ardmore’s storytelling into grand, immersive scale.
The Icons Fabric Collection
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Wonderboys Wearable Art Collection (Launching in April)
Wonderboy Fashion Designs
Within Ardmore Fashion, we are proud to introduce a Wonderboy inspired design called Love Story, a collection of wearable art featuring limited-edition silk scarves in 90cm and 65cm, neckerchiefs, 43cm pocket squares colourful 86cm short silk twills, and generous 135cm wool-modal wraps. For a more masculine expression, but not limited to, the range expands into Wonderboy Wisdom collection, made up of two 165cm long twill colourways that wear beautifully as ties and our first-ever wool-silk scarves.
Wonderboy Wisdom
This collection returns its original small-scale bleached linen, before being reintroduced in an enlarged scale across three colourways on thick linen, and in a single colourway on velvet.
This evolution represents a deeply personal extension of the Wonderboy Wisdom fabric design, where floral motifs, skulls, and soccer- and gym-playing rabbits come together to celebrate a healthy, joyful African lifestyle.
Monkey Palm & Meandering Monkey
Another much-loved design from the Q-range is Monkey Palm, featuring a friendly cut-out motif of a naïve monkey among palm trees and birds. Evolving from the Wonderboy Wisdom narrative, this design is reintroduced in 2026 in rich mango orange and sunset colourways, available in thick linen and outdoor fabrics.
Our Meandering Monkey cushions, in sunset, stone and oasis, are perfectly suited to children’s playrooms and bedrooms, as well as relaxed cottage interiors. Trays, placemats and tea towels will follow later in the year.
Protea Garden
One of the most popular designs in the Q-range, Protea Garden celebrates South Africa’s national flower. The design team has added a sunbird to represent Fée, drawing on an African myth of a bird believed to hover over every artist, pollinating creativity.
This design is available in magnolia, stone (a taupe colourway), delta (a green), and dusk (a blend of black and olive), in both linen and outdoor fabrications. Complementary cushions featuring protea florals are offered in velvet, silk and cotton, in night, ash and chalk colourways.
Croco co-ords
Leopard Light co-ords
Our bold cut-out Croco design has been enlarged in scale and reintroduced as a lightweight jacquard, offered in four colourways. The much-loved Funky Leopard Lights returns as a coordinating fabric.
Whats to come
Later this year, an improved and more distinctive leopard cushion design, paired with two monkeys; titled Monkey Tales, will launch in night, pearl, coral and mist, across velvet, silk and cotton. This design will also extend into trays, placemats, tea towels and table linens.
