Isishweshwe : a history of the indigenisation of blueprint in South Africa.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Leeb-du Toit, Juliette.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Clothing and dress--South Africa--History.

Clothing and dress.

Clothing and dress--South Africa--German influences.

Resist-dyed textiles--South Africa--History.

Resist-dyed textiles.

Textile fabrics--South Africa.

Textile fabrics.

Textile crafts--South Africa.

Textile crafts.

History.

South Africa.

Physical Description:

302 pages : color illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

South Africa : University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2017.

Summary:

The cross-cultural usage of a particular cloth type called 'blueprint' is central to South African cultural history. Known locally as seshoeshoe or isishweshwe, among many other localized names, South African blueprint originated in the Far East and East Asia. Adapted and absorbed by the West, blueprint in Africa was originally associated with trade, coercion, colonisation, Westernisation, religious conversion, and even slavery, but residing within its hues and patterns was a resonance that endured. The cloth came to reflect histories of hardship, courage, and survival, but it also conveyed the taste and aesthetic predilections of its users, preferences often shared across racial and cultural divides. In its indigenisation, isishweshwe has subverted its former history and alien origins to come to reflect the authority of its users and their culture, conveying resilience, innovation, adaptation, and above all a distinctive South Africanness. In this beautifully illustrated book, Juliette Leeb-du Toit traces the origins of the cloth, its early usage and cultural adaptations, and its emerging regional, cultural, and aesthetic significance. In examining its usage and current national significance, she highlights some of the salient features associated with histories of indigenisation. An art historian who has a particular interest in African and South African art, Juliette Leeb-du Toit has also had a lifelong interest in design and textiles. She is currently engaged in the recovery of modernisms in design history, the impact of German modernism in South Africa, and the impact of China on the arts in South Africa.

Contents:

1 Indigon Textiles in Context 11

2 Early Cape Dress in Context 35

3 Frontier, Voortrekker and Pioneer Dress 49

4 German Missionaries, Blaudruck and German Settlers 67

5 Modern European and American Blueprint in Context 85

6 Modern British Blueprint in Context 113

7 Da Gama Textiles and isiShweshwe 133

8 Traders and isiShweshwe 161

9 Cultural Usage of isiShweshwe in Lesotho and Swaziland 179

10 Cultural Usage of isiShweshwe in South Africa, Botswana and Namibia 205

11 IsiShweshwe Dress and Its Modernities 237.

ISBN:

1869143140

9781869143145

OCLC:

989062645