Words: Helene Ramackers Photographs: Costa Economides

Charles Bothner says with a twinkle in his eyes, pointing to his shorts and T-shirt: ‘Marianne is just throwing some clothes on. Believe it or not, I’m wearing more clothes than she is.’

The glamorous couple, Marianne Fassler, a top fashion designer, and Charles, her businessman-husband of the past 17 years, are leaving for a weekend soiree in the bush. A few minutes later, Marianne, head-to-toe black, accentuating her flaming red hair, is in her newly remodelled kitchen, drying out freshly baked rusks in the oven. Charles is languidly scanning the newspaper while keeping an eye on the sports channel on TV.

Marianne proceeds to make a cappuccino from scratch. She says she enjoys one twice a day, made from great quality coffee; she doesn’t like the ‘instant stuff’.

Marianne and her twin brothers were born in Johannesburg, but spent their childhood in Heidelberg. Her younger brother, Koos, named after their father, Koos van der Wat, is an optometrist. Her twin, Johan, followed in his father’s footsteps to become a gynaecologist. Marianne took the more arty path of her mother, Hannatjie, who is renowned for her abstract paintings.

Marianne graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand with Honours in Afrikaans and History of Art, but she was already on her way to a career in fashion design. ‘I got married when I was very young, and as a way of supplementing our income, I would make clothes,’ she says. ‘During that time, my mother encouraged me to learn how to sew. She often made her own clothes. My mother said, "If you don’t know how to do it properly, you’re going to end up only knowing how to make little miniskirts", which was what I was wearing at the time. There were no official design schools in those days like there are now, but I got wonderful training from a Hungarian woman, who introduced me to European culture and the café society. I held my first fashion show in my mother’s garden.’

Marianne has two children from her first marriage, Hannia (Weber) and Marisa. Marisa, an economist, works at the Reserve Bank. Hannia’s daughters, Sibella and Sophia, are seven and two years’ old respectively. Sibella is also the inspiration behind Marianne’s children’s fashion line of the same name, which is managed by Hannia.

Marianne also has five stepchildren from Charles’s first marriage – his firstborn son Justin, followed by the quadruplets, Claudia, Antonia, Simon and Dominic, who have just turned 30. The whole family, including Marianne’s parents, live in close proximity to one another. One of the family’s favourite pastimes is to gather around her long kitchen table while Marianne throws together an impromptu meal.

Marianne and her first husband, John, purchased this Saxonwold house in 1976. Coincidentally, Charles had recently moved to South Africa from England and purchased a house of his own just two roads away.

Marianne had just set up her business, and she and John, who was studying medicine at the time, could jointly afford the house. After they got divorced, though, Marianne found herself in dire financial straits, facing the daunting tasks of paying the mortgage while simultaneously raising two young children single-handedly. But with help from her parents, Marianne succeeded in keeping the house. ‘Looking back, I’m glad I stuck it out. Now I wouldn’t be able to afford to buy the house – it has really increased in value,’ she says.

Among her other assets that have increased in value is her art collection. Even before they met, both Marianne and Charles were avid collectors of South African art. Marianne says she feels fortunate to have met many of the local artists when they were all a lot younger, which is when she started buying artwork from them. ‘You collect art not because you have money. You collect it because you can’t live without it. You make sacrifices in order to collect great pieces, and if you make the right choice, it can be very rewarding,’ she says. Charles started his William Kentridge collection in the ’80s, while Marianne bought artworks from Karel Nel, who remains a good friend of theirs to this day. One of her favourite pieces in the house is Encounter 1969, an abstract painting by her mother.

Marianne’s home sits on a half-acre of property that has a sprawling feel to it. The rustic fencing along the driveway forms an intricate part of the large garden, where trees set up a tall canopy of leaves that hums with birdlife. Marianne says: ‘I bought the house as it was, but after I married Charles, we added the front wing. Since all our children were still coming and going, we kept the original house intact. Over the years, we added the living room, and a private bedroom with en-suite bathroom for us upstairs. We also extended the kitchen, which has become really user-friendly. We were spending a lot of time in the kitchen, as I love cooking and I have lots of family who I can conjure up dishes for. We also added a patio area around the pool. The upkeep of the house is a work in progress – clearly, one needs to renovate.’

Marianne found that since her studios were located elsewhere, she hardly got to spend any time at home, so she and Charles decided to move the entire creative side of her operation to the house. Now they both work from home, and get that much more mileage out of the house. ‘Although we rarely sit in our living room, it’s open and we walk through it all the time, so it’s not like a dead space,’ she explains.

Marianne is fond of Saxonwold. ‘It wasn’t a really fashionable suburb, because everybody was buying in the North,’ she says, ‘but I loved it here, and it has since become a very sought-after area… Saxonwold is really a lovely suburb – it’s quiet, gentrified, and has become young again.’