Khadi Resort

“Celebrating Our History, Our Heritage and Our Freedom!”

This Capsule collection was specially designed and created for the India South Africa Business Summit Gala that took place in April 2018.

These unique pieces are a celebration of the centenary of Nelson Mandela and 125 years of the Gandhi incident in Pietermaritzburg. Both of these icons are known for their fight for FREEDOM!

For this collection Stephen lend it a resort-feel and focused on fusing the uniqueness of the Indian Khadi fabric with design elements that are true to his South African heritage as a fashion designer.  One of these elements are the application of hand-silkscreen printing of motives and patterns that are symbolic of indigenous African and Indian illustrations/art.  The silhouettes of this capsule collection are mostly voluminous and have freedom for movement, with wasted belts to accentuate and flatter the female shape. All the ensembles are made out of natural fibre fabrics.  A capsule collection of accessories where also designed by Ivanette Britz of Cape Cobra Leathercraft to complement and accompany these one-of-a-kind ensembles.

Background:

18th of July 2018 marks a 100 years since the birth of the father of our nation, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, in the South African village of Mvezo.  He was by far one of the most influential political visionaries the world has known.  We as South Africans whom have known and loved him, will forever remember him as the man who led our nation to freedom, who suffered under and then vanquished the evil of apartheid in our country, and who built a democracy with magnanimity, wisdom and vision.

Gandhi spent 20 years in South Africa during his apprenticeship to become a Mahatma; eleven of which were spent in KwaZulu Natal. In June 1893 on a train trip to Pretoria, Gandhi was ordered by a white man to move from first class to third class. Gandhi, who had a first class ticket, refused and was thrown off the train in Pietermaritzburg.

This event led to a momentous moment in Gandhi’s life as he decided to stay and fight the oppression of Indians in South Africa. It was during this struggle that he developed his unique resistance movement known as Satyagraha.  After Gandhi established the roots of Satyagraha (‘passive resistance’), he left for India to pursue the path of freedom, and remove India from grip of the British.

The British Raj was selling very high cost cloths to the Indians. The Indian Mill owners wanted to monopolise the Indian market themselves. Ever since the American Civil War had caused a shortage of American cotton, the British would buy cotton from India at cheap prices and use the cotton to manufacture cloth to sell the rest of the world and also back to the people of India.

In India, Khadi refers to handwoven cloth that can consist of either cotton, silk or wool. Swadeshi is a movement of boycotting English products during the first two decades of the twentieth Century and was started and popularised by Mahatma Gandhi and Indian Mill owners, whom backed Nationalist politicians who called for a boycott of the import of foreign cloth into India.

Mahatma Gandhi began promoting the spinning of khadi for rural self-employment and self-reliance (instead of using cloth manufactured industrially in Britain) in the 1920s in India, thus making khadi an integral part and an icon of the Swadeshi movement and that is why it is known as the CLOTH OF FREEDOM!

Click on the lto watch the inspirational video-clip that was capture during the shoot.

CONTRIBUTORS:

Photography:   Lindie Wilton

Make-up & Hair:  Kirsten Murphy

Location:  Franschoek

Model:  Anyon | Fusion Models Cape Town

Hats:  Crystal Birch

Handbags: Cape Cobra Leathercraft