Afrogrunge is inspired by the personal experiences of founder & creative director Anita Hlazo. She experienced what it felt like to be a black girl in the locations of Cape Town whom strongly identified with a lifestyle less travelled.

She experimented with her identity by fashioning her body infusing black culture with her interest in the Caucasian-established subculture Grunge within her community, Gugulethu at the time. 

Due to the lack of acceptance or understanding of how she expressed herself through clothing, body modification, the genre of music she listened to. She was driven by need to fit in, or at least see individuals like her on the internet, without the using the broad search term ‘alternative black girl’ – very prominent at between years 2011-2013 – but resulted in a broader spectrum of subcultures adopted by people of colour and not grunge specifically.

After realizing there was a lack in representation offline and online as well as accessibility to this style in stores around her. She chose to be exactly those things she found lacking. After completing high school, she perused Fashion Design, studied it at the Cape Peninsula University of Cape Town. Once she graduated with a Degree in Fashion, she officially started a Fashion Design Business, she ran Afrogrunge as a company and not just an idea, an identity.