Dress
Designer
Thebe Magugu
(South African, born 1993)
2023
Recycled Polyester
Museum purchase
Object number2023.55.1
Thebe Magugu focused his second Heritage Series – a line honoring nine South African cultures through depictions of women – on mothers and children. For each design, he collaborated with graphic artist Phathu Nembilwi and commissioned essays by South African scholars “explaining each culture’s folkloric childbearing rituals and beliefs.” Magugu is part of the Tswana, as well as the Basotho and Pedi cultural groups, and his design highlights the Tswana practice of “botswetsi” (seclusion period) in which new mothers, “motswetsi,” and babies, “lesea,” rest, recover, and grow.
DescriptionTswana dress: print of mother and child on solid and Ben Day dot blue ground, single snap closure at keyhole neck and collar tie, long sleeves with elastic wrists, side seam pockets, front slitCollections
Exhibitions