Fashion shows are not often a life-affirming spectacle, with their expressionless, tissue-thin models flouncing up and down the ramp. But, this week, students from the fashion studies department of the University of Johannesburg (UJ) held a fashion exhibition with a difference. They designed and modelled garments made from traditional khanga fabric — with a twist.
Khangas are traditional wraps worn mostly in African countries north of the Limpopo, especially by women in rural areas. The cloths usually measure more than a metre in length and feature colourful designs, inspirational messages or iconographic pictures of political leaders.
The cloths have a multitude of uses. They are worn as skirts or sarongs, folded into headdresses or used as slings to carry household items or small children.
Textile design students at the Tshwane University of Technology designed khangas on the theme of HIV/Aids awareness as part of a joint project with the United States consulate in Johannesburg.
Students from the UJ fashion studies department then used these fabrics to create a clothing range for the fashion show. ”We made it fun and very informative. It was not simply about walking up and down the ramp, but sending out an important message,” says Sandya Lalloo, a department lecturer.
Mary Jeffers, public affairs officer at the US consulate, whose husband is from Tanzania where khangas are very popular, said it was ”a wonderful and unusual way of communicating. This is a good way of involving the arts in spreading HIV/Aids awareness.”
”The HIV/Aids message should be normalised, and this is one way of doing it,” says Teolene Diedricks, institutional officer for HIV/Aids at the university. ”The khangas were designed to carry the HIV/Aids message. This shows what art can do to destigmatise HIV/Aids,” she enthused.
The khanga exhibition can be viewed at the Bus Factory in Newtown as part of the When Life Happens festival next month