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Michael Peter Reid wins SA Fashion Week New Talent Search

Published

Designer Michael Peter Reid took this year's title in the annual competition for emerging South African designers. He said he returned to fashion design after going back to basics and realising he could not stop doing it.

Reid said SA Fashion Week gives young designers a platform and boosts their exposure. He also pointed to the community of designers at the event.

Mikhail Brown, co-founder of the brand Ntwana, also took part in this fashion week. Brown started designing in 2023 and says he has come far in 3 years. He said Ntwana is reaching the upper echelons of the fashion industry and that this first fashion week will not be the brand's last.

Designer David Tlale won the New Talent Search in 2003.

Key facts

Who
Michael Peter Reid (winner of this year's SA Fashion Week New Talent Search); Mikhail Brown (co-founder of the brand Ntwana); David Tlale (designer who won the New Talent Search in 2003)
What
Michael Peter Reid took the win in SA Fashion Week's New Talent Search, which the article presents as a platform for emerging South African designers. The piece is a feature profiling the winner and co-founder Mikhail Brown of Ntwana.
When
23 October 2026
Status
Reported

Elections Hot

What you need to know

Voting in the 2026 Local Government Elections is under way at 23,696 stations, and the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) reported a smooth start on 4 November. Stations opened at 7am and close at 9pm, and by 10am preliminary figures showed 3,523,691 voters had cast ballots.

There were problems: unused ballot papers were stolen from Mnyameni Secondary School near Durban, police opened a case, and the IEC relieved the station staff of duty. Some voters in Tshwane said they were turned away for wearing party shirts, but the IEC denied this and said only mayoral candidates' entourages were barred.

ANC chairperson Gwede Mantashe told members not to query the results or discredit the IEC, while the IEC said false online claims show routine procedures as fraud.

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US mid-terms Heating up

What you need to know

Democrats won back both the US House and Senate in the midterm elections held on 3 November, according to media projections. Exit polls showed voters were angry about high prices and the direction of the country, and rebuked President Donald Trump.

Before the vote, US forces struck targets on Qeshm Island in Iran, while Republicans struggled to defend the war against Iran on the campaign trail. Iranian officials said US voters rejected the war, and Tehran stayed on high alert for possible new US strikes.

Markets reacted, with the dollar hitting a one-month low and the rand firming to around R16.55, as analysts pointed to fears of gridlock in Washington.

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  2. Democrats win US Congress in midterm vote, projections show
  3. Ramaphosa wants US trade deal after AGOA suspension

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AI Cooling

What you need to know

Nvidia has told its cloud computing clients to sell at least 51% of their services to non-Chinese companies, according to five people with knowledge of the matter. Anthropic said it has committed to spend close to $900bn on AI infrastructure, and that its computing costs are rising faster than its revenues.

Elsewhere, reports from unnamed sources say OpenAI's latest funding round is falling short of expectations, and a judge let the NAACP pollution case against xAI proceed. In South Africa, the VAST AI investment scheme went offline on 30 October after withdrawals marked approved did not arrive, according to a news investigation.

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  3. Google lets schools turn off AI tools but limits Search

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