Nelson Mandela represents the yin and yang of the political world. His personal iconography has come to represent the fusing of power with compassion; austerity with playfulness; childlike joy with the grief and weariness of years of suffering. After 26 years of near silence he entered the televisual world of sound bites and suffocating superficiality with unprecedented candour and sincerity. And also with impeccable style.
Desré Buirski, creator and designer of Mandela’s trademark hand-painted silk shirts, says of the former president: ‘He is like no other politician that has come before him. He is forward and open but very humble. His clothing represents him in that way. It’s a self-expression of freedom — He commands respect in the way he dresses. No politician before him was ready to walk that path — strutting such a totally new image.”
Buirski has been officially designing Mandela’s shirts since 1995, after she sent one of the shirts to him as a gift prior to his inauguration as president.
Yet she gives credit to Mandela for the creation of his own fashion sense. ‘He has created his own image, there’s no doubt about it. He found a style of shirt and he has created his style of dress out of that.”
Mandela has made it possible for politicians to abandon the staid formality of grey suits for a new, bolder and distinctively African chic. Says Dion Chang, editor-at-large of Elle magazine and programme director for SA Fashion Week: ‘In politics, where the power suit rules everything, he’s broken a whole lot of stereotypes and preconceptions of how politicians should be dressed. And fashion is about breaking rules.”
Mandela’s style has become instantly recognisable. ‘He’s become a brand, definitely,” says Chang. ‘In the fashion world, big brands are kings and so I think it’s a good thing.”
Mandela-style shirts have become so popular that similar, though never identical, hand-painted silk shirts are available for a cool R2 500 from Buirski’s store, Presidential Shirt, at the Cape Town waterfront.
But Mandela’s public image far surpasses his style of shirts or his occasional Armani suit. It has been his uniqueness as a politician, his openness and humility that has allowed him to break rules.
Chang says that it is his strong sense of identity that has allowed him to be so bold in his fashion. ‘He’s completely self-realised and assured with who he is and where he is going,” says Chang. ‘He can wear what he wants. There’s quirkiness, a sense of humour there. But for me its just a sense of self-confidence. About not being afraid of anything.”
In a society ravaged by abuse and exploitation of women, Mandela has also come to represent a new ideal of masculinity. ‘He of all people is aware of the power of a yin and a yang, of masculine and feminine qualities. So he can be compassionate to children and to HIV/Aids sufferers. But he’s also a pretty sharp lawyer and aware that he wouldn’t have got himself to where he is if he didn’t have the courage of his convictions and if he didn’t dig his heels in.”