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Paper short abstract:

The paper discusses some of the ways fashion designers in Johannesburg draw from the past styles to create contemporary garments. It studies these practices as a form of constructing social memory as well as counter-memory to the hegemonic reading of the apartheid era.

Paper long abstract:

South African clothing styles and fashion market appear rather Western-influenced in comparison to those in Congo and much of West Africa, for instance. Yet references to local and localized traditions have probably emerged throughout time. At the turn of the 2000s, there was an Afro-centric trend in the South African fashion field that coincided with and celebrated the transition from apartheid to democracy. Fashion labels such as Stoned Cherrie and Sun Goddess made bold and obvious references to African or ethnic styles and emblems, which some of the current Black South African designers consider to have been relevant at the time but stereotypical representations of Africanness today.

Many current fashion designers in Johannesburg seek subtle ways of incorporating past or ethnic styles in their designs - sometimes these are so subtle that discerning them requires careful inspection and historical knowledge. In addition, current designers include a rather wide pool of historical styles in the repertoire they draw from to make new designs. These include fabrics, patterns and garments that were originally imported from Europe and widely used among Black South Africans in the past. The paper views the use of past styles as a form of constructing social memory as well as counter-memory (Foucault 1977) to the hegemonic reading of the apartheid era. Simultaneously, some of the designers use historical emblems to project "traditions" to the future. Thus, in different ways, in shaping garments, the designers process temporalities to imagine their world in a broader context.