WOMAN OF THE YEAR | Kitso Kgori is the architect of her story

I first met Kitso Kgori at a fashion party hosted by her close friend and designer Rich Mnisi in the concrete tubes of Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town, last November.

She was carefree and effortlessly cool behind the decks while serving body in a signature Xibelani miniskirt designed by Mnisi. Her buttery, glowing skin in a barely-there crop top was as spellbinding as her DJ set.

She oozed vibez, lighting up the room with her high-energy and dance moves. I never forgot her. I even Shazamed one of the tracks she played, Major League DJz’s remix of Laho by Shallipopi, which has become my pre-game anthem when I’m getting ready for a night out.

Imagine my surprise when I later learnt that the 32-year-old, originally from Mahikeng, has only been a DJ for about two years. Kgori may be the ultimate fashion chameleon, building a budding career that fuses photography, modelling, architecture, and music.

After attending boarding school in Potchefstroom, Kgori moved to Cape Town to study architecture at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. She notes that her other option was visual arts, as she’s good at drawing. Before long, she was modelling part-time. “I got my passion for photography through architecture,” she says. “I used to assist a friend who was a stylist. By the time I got into photography, I already understood the concepts of composition and contrast balance because of my background in architecture. Even in my photography work, it’s more compositional than just looking pretty.”

Kgori harnessed that curiosity by studying photography for a year, just before the Covid-19 lockdown, at Orms Cape Town School of Photography. “Photography was never part of the plan,” she confesses. “In one of my architecture modules, I had to photograph details of buildings, [showing] how steel, timber, and concrete function, in order to understand materialism. That was my favourite experience, and taking pictures of that. But when I got into photography, I hated taking pictures of buildings. I only wanted landscape, beach, sand, and those serene backdrops, never buildings.”

Kgori enjoys celebrating the strength of Black women through her photography. One of her favourite subjects is Miss Universe 2019 Zozibini Tunzi. “She had just come back home after living in New York as Miss Universe when I photographed her,” she says. “At that time, I was focused on photographing powerful Black women.

Even her hairstyle was representative of African women and not your conventional beauty standards, where your hair has to be straightened. What I try to create with my photography is women’s power. I do work with men, but in most of my work, I try to empower Black women. In magazines and advertisements, there is still the beauty standard of a lighter complexion. Colourism is also a thing, so most of the time I tend to shoot dark-skinned women, for them to be seen and shown in these high-fashion spaces.”

Kgori touches on how she has never been a conventional beauty, whether in high school or when modelling.

“I went to high school in Potch, which was a very Afrikaans school,” she says. “What was important with Zozi was that she had natural hair. In school, we were not allowed to wear our natural hair — it was seen as untidy.”

As a model, she enjoyed being a muse for fellow photographer Michael Oliver Love. “Most of the modelling I did with him was fully nude shoots because of the freedom I had within those sessions,” Kgori says. “I did go for castings, but I mostly had direct bookings because I didn’t conform to the rules of having specific hair, nails, and other things considered conventionally beautiful.”

It’s thanks to her good pal Desiree, the SA-born and international-based DJ, that she ended up becoming a DJ herself. She also credits Mnisi for pushing her in that direction. “I was always partying and doing European tours. I love festivals and Cape Town is great for live music festivals — that’s how we [Desiree] met, through a party,” Kgori says. “So, in 2022 or 2023, I travelled with her to Europe, going to her gigs. Music then became a thing and I was sending songs to my friends. Then, two years ago, Rich suggested that I become a DJ, since I was always sending him songs and partying. I had just come back from Ibiza, and a month later, Bridges Academy for DJ in Cape Town had a Women’s Month course, urging women to join.”

In two months, Mnisi booked her to play at his popular annual 2 Million Icons party. She has never looked back.

What kind of career does Kgori want? “A fusion of music, photography, and fashion,” she replies. “My dream thing, because I studied architecture, would be to build an installation. In that installation, there would be photographs that I have taken and I would be playing music.”

She also dreams of playing in Ibiza and, hopefully, embarking on a European tour. “I’m going to Europe in two weeks,” she reveals. “I’m going to make little connections because it’s always easier when people meet you in person.”

Raised by a single mother, Kgori is the last-born of two girls, with an 11-year gap between her and her sister. “My mother was hard working,” she says. “She has shown me quiet strength. She has discipline, and she’s very strict. She holds me accountable for my mistakes. She has never been the kind of parent to tell me what I want to hear. That kind of love shaped my character. She doesn’t smother me.”