The days when settling on a
skirt that was too baggy around the waist because it fits around the hips may
be facing an edge for many African women. Thanks to mother-and-son team who are
cracking a sizing system that is conforming to the black women unique contours.
“The shape of the clothing
in the shop doesn’t solidify, compared with the shape of An African woman”
Fikile Nxedlana says over the phone from Vunula fashion workshop (Her House) in
Durban.
Ask most of the African about
fashion and they will tell you,
from a mother of sixty, that since they were teenagers, if they are lucky to
get an outfit that was fitting, that would either be a fitting top but
unfitting bottom. Either it’s too baggy or stands out at the back such that you
can never find pants. Jamal Nxedlana agrees with this wholeheartedly “the
problem is usually the hip-to-waist ratio”.
Western patterns have no
room for natural hourglass figure. Facing facts, women have more dramatic
curves than what the stores suggests.
It’s through such things
that young fashionista, styled with the likes of Loyiso Bala and Spoke
Mathambo, and his traditional mother have teamed to create new label called the
misshape. The label was instantly aimed at the young professionals, boasting
chic silhouette courtesy of Jamal and new sizing system, a basic reality of the
African measurement, developed by Fikile.
“I
would buy clothes and change them” discloses Fikile. “Soon
I was modifying all my friends’ outfits. I then took a design course and
started to make clothes. That is what inspired me to push Jamal and let people
know that there is a market here. In trying to correct the patterns, I came up
with new ways of working things out.”
Fikile
creates the look while the mother creates the pattern. He chooses the fabric
while she produces the outfits at her factory. It’s the same place that she trains
the unemployed women to help them make a living out of fashion.
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