About Sandalene

Sandalene Olivier was born in 1975 in Durban South Africa. Her first experiences in textiles and fabric were at age five when her mother opened a shop selling fabric and textiles. Sandalene used to hang around the shop and help her mom with the daily duties.

Sandalene studied ballet at UCT and developed her love of form and movement which triggered a fascination in the design and the fashion world.

After incurring a back injury Sandalene was forced to look for other ways to make a living. She took a trip to England at age 23 and began working for Sugar club restaurants where she met her husband Luke Dale Roberts. They spent a few years together in London before heading off to the Orient. Sandalene had various jobs from Teaching English to International marketing and Event organisation.

Sandalene always adopted a very unique and non conformist view to fashion and this began taking shape in Seoul, South Korea. Whilst spending 3 years here she began making her own clothes inspired by the local textiles and fashion and travel to other locations in Northern Asia, most of all Tokyo where she enjoyed spending her time with her brother Arn, his Japanese wife and their two daughters Miyabi and Myra. Miyabi became the inspiration for Sandalene’s brand name through her own love of clothes and her name meaning beauty/elegance and grace. In true Japanese style Miyabi’s English name was Vivienne after Vivienne Westwood.

Sandalene realised that the choice of clothes in Seoul were either Catwalk designer labels or cheap market clothes that unravelled as she left the shop. This forced her to keep turning out her own designs. The seed was sown.

Upon returning home to South Africa she quickly set about putting together a structure enabling her to begin her first true passion since ballet. Using some of the fabrics she had gathered in Asia along with local sourced produce she put together her first range which was met with great enthusiasm from her friends and associates. She presented them at the Biscuit mill and has since run a very successful stall there.

Since then she has developed her style and the label Miyabi which prides itself for delivering fresh, wearable ladies fashion with an edge. Her clothes are available in The Space (Rosebank, JHB) Mungo and jemima: Long street and have appeared in numerous publications such as Fair Lady, Oprah magazine, VISI, Real Simple, Heat, You Magazine, Marie Claire, Instyle, Cosmopolitan etc...