Written by Anastatia Nkhuna
Own the ARC, G-STAR’s global campaign, marks the return of the ARC in 2026. At its centre is Belgian DJ and producer Charlotte de Witte, G-STAR Global Brand Ambassador, who climbs the Arc de Triomphe in a pair of ARC jeans.
In South Africa, G-STAR invited South African creatives to interpret the silhouette through their own practices. For fashion designer and creative director Wanda Lephoto, that interpretation became Craft Carries Culture.
“G-STAR ARC is engineered. It’s raw. It’s authentic.” - Wanda Lephoto
The ARC is a jean built around movement. Its lineage traces back to the 1996 Elwood, G-STAR’s first design shaped around the body in motion.
At the heart of G-STAR’s global Own the ARC campaign is one idea: the ARC has an attitude, as if the jeans have already lived a life. Its distinctive shape gives them a sculptural silhouette, and the campaign ties that signature curve to the Arc de Triomphe and to the journey of Charlotte de Witte, G-STAR Global Brand Ambassador. Her climb from the base of the monument to the top mirrors her own, step by step, night after night.
“Charlotte has carved out her own path in an industry dominated by men, building her career from the ground up through focus, discipline and determination. That journey really resonates with us. She is a genuine source of inspiration for us and a powerful representation of this new chapter for G-STAR Women,” says Gwenda van Vliet, Chief Brand Officer, G-STAR.
For Wanda, however, the silhouette becomes an opportunity to think about something larger: what makes something distinctly South African without having to explicitly say that it is?
Wanda: South Africa has an amazing sensibility, and that sensibility is informed by history, and that history is informed by a context we all know.
He points to the details we recognise almost instinctively, the doily in someone’s home, parquet flooring, familiar textures and domestic references. These things may appear ordinary, but they carry a shared cultural memory.
Wanda: All these things have a context and a history that belongs to South Africa. So it’s not just an aesthetic; it’s actually a belonging. I think the thing that makes things the most South African is a sense of belonging.
It is this idea of belonging that sits at the centre of Craft Carries Culture.
Wanda: We’ve chosen people who naturally, within their fields, work with craft and they make things with meaning. Mankebe Seakgoe , Thokozile Dlamini , Khanyisile Masina and Mpumi Nhlapo. The people become as important as the clothes. They represent a community of makers whose practices already speak to craft, expression and the act of creating something with intention.
For Wanda, the way South Africans dress operates similarly. Clothing is personal, but it is also communal.
Wanda: I think South Africans dress to express themselves, but they dress to also belong to a community. We dress to express ourselves and to feel beautiful and to feel magical.
There is a natural relationship between that idea and the ARC. Its engineered curve and twisted construction make it a silhouette designed to be noticed. But for Wanda, being seen is not only about spectacle, it is also about recognising and being recognised by the people around you.
Wanda: You belong to a community of watchers, of seekers, of doers, of makers, of crafters, and that, in essence, is also an identity of South African people. South African people, we’re curious, we like to watch, we like to express, we like to craft.
In Craft Carries Culture, the ARC remains the constant while Wanda shifts the world around it. What emerges is not an attempt to make denim look South African, but an exploration of what was already there: craft, memory, expression and belonging.
Watch the full Own the ARC: Craft Carries Culture campaign and follow G-STAR South Africa on Instagram.
