A few months ago I was aked by a customer to make her two pairs of wedding shoes. The one pair she would wear with her white dress on her wedding day and the other pair she would wear with her traditional Xhosa dress for the traditional Xhosa wedding ceremony.
I made her these red shwe-shwe brogue style ballet flats(above). I think they came out beautiful!
The second pair is the Bimbow bride in soft nappa leather and a silk satin bow.
About Shwe-shwe fabric:
Shwe-shwe fabric has a long history in South Africa. Shwe-shwe is an indigo-dyed discharge printed fabric. Historians claim that the indigo cloth arrived in South Africa more than 2000 years ago, used as trade goods by Arabs and Indians. In the mid 1800s, German settlers introduced it to the Xhosa people, the brilliant colour appealed to the Xhosa women and they made it their own. Wearing shwe-shwe cloth has become a tradition within the Xhosa culture, worn by newly married women, to show their marriage status.
Comments
Post a Comment