Leocé

George Stander grew up in the Free State and studied commerce, not fashion. He finished a commerce degree at the University of Pretoria in 2012, moved to Cape Town a year later, and in 2017 started his own label, GEO by George. The formal training came after the instinct: two fashion design diplomas, completed through London's Fashion Design Institute and the International Career Institute in 2020.

He makes clothes the slow way. A first meeting with George is about listening, not sketching. He wants to understand the woman, the occasion and the version of herself she wants to be on the day, and he stays with the garment from that first conversation to the final fitting. On the day itself, he dresses the client personally. He takes on a small number of commissions at a time, and that is deliberate.

His first cruise collection was shown in London in 2018. He made his New York Fashion Week debut in 2024, and in 2025 he showed the Pearl collection at Paris Fashion Week and closed SA Menswear Week in Cape Town.

In 2021 the label became Leocé, and the bespoke practice became the heart of the business. Leocé is a couture house rather than a fashion label, and it shows in how the house works: made-to-measure commissions come first, and the ready-to-wear gowns and everyday pieces in the shop grow out of the same studio and the same hand.

Fabrics come from Paris and Milan, each one chosen for a single commission, and each commission is made by hand in the Cape Town studio. Consultations happen in a private suite, away from the shop floor. Most clients hear about Leocé from someone whose taste they trust, and many of them live abroad, so the house ships internationally as well as across South Africa.

The showroom is on Strand Street in De Waterkant, open Monday to Saturday. For bespoke work, book an appointment first. To start, fill in the brief on Leocé's website. You don't need a finished idea, just an occasion and a feeling you want to wear.