It is a question that sits quietly behind much of what she does. Thorne is perhaps best known as one of the co-founders of Khokho, the Eswatini-based handbag and accessories label that has spent more than a decade putting traditional Swazi weaving into a contemporary luxury context. But to reduce her to Khokho would leave out much of the work that has made her a familiar figure within Eswatini's creative and cultural industries.
Her world extends from fashion and design to events, food, music and the business of making creative work sustainable. She has been involved with both Bushfire and Luju, two of Eswatini's best-known lifestyle and cultural platforms, and continues to work with emerging designers and creatives. In these spaces, her role has often been less about simply being the person on the stage and more about helping shape what happens around it.
That instinct can be traced back to Khokho. Founded in 2014, Khokho was created by Thorne, Central Saint Martins alum and social entrepreneur; handbag designer and consultant Sapna Shah, formerly of Rag & Bone and Calvin Klein; and master weaver Zinhle Vilakati. The three women shared a vision to elevate an ancient Swazi weaving technique and place it within a contemporary design language.
The name itself, Khokho, means great-grandmother in siSwati. It speaks to the importance of women and inherited knowledge in the brand's identity. In Eswatini, women are often the matriarchs of their families and communities, and each of the founders drew from the influence of their own mothers and grandmothers. For Khokho, that heritage is not simply part of the marketing.
It is also where Thorne's view of luxury becomes more pointed. She has spoken about the difference in the way consumers can perceive African craftsmanship compared with craftsmanship coming out of established European luxury houses. The hours of work that go into a handmade product can be celebrated when the name on the label is Hermès, for example, while a locally made item can still be approached with the expectation that its price should be negotiated.
“So much skill and so many hours are put into just one piece. Where internationally people really celebrate something like the craft of an Hermès bag, consumers, typically [bargain] in Swazi markets on their price, not really approaching it as something with similar value to a European creation,” she has been qouted saying in interviews.
That tension is central to what Khokho is trying to change. The brand's ambition is not simply to preserve traditional weaving as something from the past. It is to give the skill commercial value while ensuring that the people who possess that knowledge can develop it further.
Khokho has invested in technical training in weaving and leatherwork, as well as leadership and business training for community members. The idea is that traditional skills can remain relevant while also creating opportunities for artisans to build sustainable livelihoods around them.
That combination of heritage and enterprise has followed Thorne into her wider work. Her involvement in Eswatini's events and lifestyle industry has placed her in another part of the creative economy: the space where fashion, food, music, culture and people meet.
Bushfire, in particular, has become an important part of Eswatini's cultural calendar, attracting audiences from across the region and beyond while creating a platform for musicians, artists, designers, food businesses and other creative practitioners. Thorne's involvement in that ecosystem reflects the same interest seen in Khokho: creating spaces where African creativity is not treated as an afterthought.
Then there is Luju. As Fashion Curator for the Standard Bank Luju Food & Lifestyle Festival, Thorne has helped shape a fashion programme that places African creativity, culture and innovation alongside the festival's wider celebration of food and lifestyle.
At a media briefing at House On Fire in Malkerns, she spoke about the fashion experiences planned for the festival, giving a glimpse into an approach to fashion that extends beyond clothes on a runway. It is about the designers, the stories, the materials, the culture behind them and the audience that gets to experience them.
Her work with emerging designers has similarly placed her in a position where she can contribute to the development of people coming after her. It is perhaps this that makes her career in Eswatini particularly interesting. Thorne has not built her work around one discipline. She moves between fashion, design, events and creative development, often finding the common thread between them.
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That balance matters because the creative industries can easily become consumed by the work. For someone whose professional life involves building brands, curating experiences and creating opportunities for other people, there is a distinction between the public figure and the person who exists away from the room. Thorne's career in Eswatini has, in many ways, been about making connections between those worlds.
Khokho connects traditional weaving with contemporary luxury. Luju connects fashion with food, music and lifestyle. Her work within the wider Bushfire ecosystem connects culture with audiences, tourism and the creative economy. Across each space, there is an interest in what happens when local talent is given a platform and when creativity is treated as something with economic as well as cultural value.
It brings the conversation back to luxury. Perhaps flipping the luxury script is not about creating another version of the European luxury model. It is about questioning why the rules of value had to come from there in the first place.
A bag woven in Eswatini can carry history. An indigenous fibre can become a design material. A traditional skill can become a livelihood. A local designer can command attention beyond the country's borders. A festival can become a serious platform for the creative economy. None of these ideas are particularly new to Thorne.
They have simply become the work. And somewhere between the workshop, the festival grounds, the fashion programme and the everyday life behind the scenes, Philippa Thorne continues to make a case for a different understanding of what luxury can look like when it starts at home.
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