For my Birthday this week I organised a dinner at one of my most favourite places in Joburg - Zietsies.
Zietsies, the home of Elzabe Zietsman and the temporary home of many guests and people like me who pop in all the time, is situated on the Brixton ridge overlooking the whole of the northern suburbs. Elzabe has built a glass dining room onto the house and also cooks the most amazing food. My house has no dining room, it was the coldest week of the year so I couldn't stash my guests in the garden, I don't cook really well, and my Brixton view is of the water tower so it was really a no-brainer for a choice.
Zietsies is run by the comedy trio of Elzabe, Angelina and Agnes. Agnes and Angelina had gone out to buy some clothes that would serve as a 'uniform' for when they are on duty and they had settled on some brown shwe shwe outifts.
Angelina is wearing the brown dress. I love the woven herringbone effect of the shwe shwe on the bodice and can only imagine how much work getting the yellow trimming took. It also has great pockets. Like Erin from Dress a day,I am a really big believer in pockets.
Agnes has a panel skirt on with the great circle print that is out at the moment with a lovely front panel of plain brown fabric with interesting white design.
We held a successful community park clean up of our lovely park in Brixton last weekend. I didn't do all that much weeding and cleaning but I did run between the house and my park many times getting the ingredients to make pine cone bird feeders with some of the children who had come to help in the park.
The gorgeous shwe shwe sandals that I ordered from shweshwe.co.za have arrived and I am thrilled with them. The women at the post office who handed me the parcel saw the company name on the package and wanted to know what was inside. When I told her she insisted I open them right then and there and then she took them round to all the other counters to show the ladies there ( Luckily Brixton has a small post office, so that was only two other ladies who had to ooh and aah over the shoes before I could get them back).
As soon as the weather gets a bit warmer I am going to be stepping out in style in these fun shoes.
Thandi - one of the beautiful characters in this series is wearing a grey shwe shwe skirt. Thandi and Tet This lovely notebook for sale online from Parklife who also sell some other exquisite South African design products. Thanks to South of the Sahara for finding them first.One of my favourite local character creations from Mu and Me is now also wearing shwe shwe.
Yesterday I spent a very enriching and day with a room full of impressive people at a workshop facilitated by Dr Edward De Bono on an Action for a Safe South Africa. Two of the many impressive people in the room, Angel Jones and Barbara Holtman were also wearing shwe shwe skirts - both with a bit of shine on them. Barbara's skirt is made up of brown shwe shwe panels pieces with green inserts for an accent. I have seen this lovely skirt of Barbara's before and was immediately taken by the bead work.They are not so visible in the photo, but there is pretty shiny bead work in the broach shaped patterns in the middle of the skirt, adding a lovely sparkle to the skirt. The decorations on shwe shwe are normally braid and ric rac, and I loved the uniqueness of the beads. Angel's skirt is made of brown shwe shwe circular pattern. Painted over this are different sized circles in bronze and metallic shades which give the skirt some glimmer and shine Even though everyone was vying for both Barbara and Angel's attention I managed to get them to compare and share their shwe shwe with me at the end of a quick coffee break. Angel and Barbara are both looking down in this picture, as they explain the story of their skirts to each other. This is one of the reasons that I started asking people about their shwe shwe. Often clothes are just clothes, but shwe shwe garments always have a story behind them. Both skirts are from Stoned Cherry and if I was feeling a bit more glam I would have put myself in the next photo, in the lovely new brown dress I was wearing - also from Stoned Cherry.
I was quietly munching on some healthy lunch at Kuai in Rosebank this week and watching the world go by when I saw what looked like an awesome shwe shwe creation in the window of a shop across the path. I had to dig for my glasses in my bag so that I could see that far and saw that it was indeed a fabulous creation in the window of a shop called Sister Bucks.
I found this amazing site yesterday, www.shweshwe.co.za. Based in George on the Garden Route this online store sells only items made out of shwe shwe. They have ladies fashions, cool clothes for babies and kids and home accessories.
I recently started a new job that has me working in Soweto one or two days a week. The perfect place to see some of the most loved shwe shwe outfits, but as yet have not had the courage to stop my car in the middle of Soweto and address the ladies wearing these. At the intersection where I turn off the main road to get to the police station I am working with, there is even a road side trader with a small gazebo selling traditional clothing, including some great shwe shwe.
I read this morning on the Joburg website that the Fashion Kapitol is almost complete.
This has been a long term project as part of the rejuvenation of the inner city, and I am very excited that it is near completion. I think I was last there two or three years ago when then the project was still getting the momentum it needed.
I was happy to read that Bongiwe Walaza has taken space there, as she has done some wonderful things with Shwe shwe, and will soon be making a trip down town to visit this new fashion hub.
In South Africa at the moment there is quite a bit of doom and gloom, but projects like this , that are so clearly invested in the future really brighten my day.
You can read up more about this exciting precinct here - Fashion Kapitol Almost Complete
I have just come back from a wonderful weeks holiday in the little village of Rhodes in the Eastern Cape with some fabulous friends.
I saw quite a bit of shwe shwe wearing in the village, but only managed to get some photos of the ladies at a community enhancement felting and sewing project called 'The Red Barn'.
Two of the women sewing lovely woolen scarves outside the barn in the sun had red shwe shwe skirts on. The scarves were being constructed with such lovely local wool, I almost expected to see some of the sheep in in the fields in town at the end of their balls of wool.
Outside of Rhodes is another sewing project that several women within the area contribute to. They had several quilts (that would be better suited to outdoor picnic blankets I think), one of them had many red shwe shwe inserts.
