The unexpected truth of shweshwe, the denim of South Africa

So for Heritage Day this year I wanted to explore creating my own shweshwe, but more taking inspiration from historical African indigo cloth. And, of course, it's wild to speak about indigo without talking about denim which is doubly interesting because shweshwe's sometimes referred to as the denim of South Africa. So for my venture, I'll be bleach painting my own patterns onto denim offcuts to transform into this Victorians gown which was inspired by this image of unnamed Black family in Johannesburg in the time period. I'm going to go a lot more into depth about its journey from Asia and how it grew to be an integral part of cultural identity for so many Southern African people in my podcast, Clothes Minded—available where ever you get your podcasts. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/okbaddiek Substack: https://www.khensani.substack.com Podcast: https://linktr.ee/clothes_minded Patreon: https://patreon.com/khensani?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink Buy Me A Beer: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/khensani List of references: 18th Brumair of Louis Bonaparte. Karl Marx 1852 https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1852/18th-brumaire/ch01.htm The Black Photo Album https://artblart.com/tag/santu-mofokeng-the-black-photo-album/ The history of denim and Black activism: https://www.thezoereport.com/p/the-history-of-denim-black-activism-americas-uncredited-fashion-revolution-30222758 Guide to ethical denim: https