Traditional gears have always been a must in every South African woman's wardrobe; be it your own tradition; your partners or just because you like it. The common factor in all is COLOUR, or should I say BRIGT COLOUR! In all different cultures one pattern or type of fabric remains...Se SHWE SHWE. I used to believe it belonged only to the Sothos but alas no we all have it in our gears. Today you get it in almost all colours whereas before it was merely brown or navy(bleh!). On my last trip shopping for a SHWESHWE fabric for a dear friend of mine; I had fun just looking at the colours: red, purple, yellow, brown, orange, green, blue, navy, and on and on they went! Each with a different pattern...not Sotho influenced but trend influenced. The other lovely designer find is the textures are different; so you can make anything with SHWESHWE; from thin to thick. And it is just cotton, so it breathes...aaaaaah. On this trip too a lovely African woman (Dudu Mathabe) walked in in a full print dress with headscarf! The excitement was from my feet to my hairstrands! She went on to teach me how to do the headscarf as it is part of our culture, latest trend and my end of year range. Her outfit was of WAXPRINT fabric... with north Africa prints. And they call it the dark continent?
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