South African consumers are forever caught in a tension between global brands and lesser known local labels. The clothing design and decor industries, however, are beginning to benefit as trendies turn to designs that draw on local iconography.
For two young textile design graduates of 2002, Amanda Haupt and Lise Butler, it was a case of the right talent at the right time.
Five years later, what was once a student project has now grown into a booming business that has set tongues wagging at Decorex this year.
As an antidote to the two-dimensional world of faux zebra fur and leopard skin lounge suites, the Design Team’s idea of something local and ethnic has exploded on to cloth in myriad forms: classic paisley filled in with shwe-shwe, potjiekos pots and African aloes framed by traditional filigree, old Springbok record sleeves and Soweto Hits complete with the ‘naughty Jozi nightlife” pay-off line and colonial images of black South Africans contained in the Eurocentric framing of a cameo.
For Decorex this year, Butler and Haupt say they were ‘inspired by the colour intensity of the Western Cape landscape, indigenous vegetation and found objects”, the result of which is a new range of textiles bearing images of Bauhinia trees, proteas and bee-eater birds.
Like all their designs, these are equally at home as smaller images on large expanses of cloth or larger images on panels that reincarnate as cushion covers, wall hangings or fashion accessories such as handbags and purses.
If one looks closely, there is also a touch of satire woven into the fabric. In a subversion of the ‘Made in China” issue that swept across the local industry leaving job losses in its wake, the Design Team has designed fabric featuring the faces of gorgeous Chinese women with ‘Made in South Africa” printed underneath.
For more information call James Russell Agencies on 021 461 7905