afrofoto day 4 | cut from the same cloth (on upcycling my late Gogo's fashions)

Continuing from my last post, one of the things I did whilst in Zim was get some clothes made. Until that point I hadn't bought anything maternity because quite frankly its all hideous and unflattering...to/for me. I wanted some cute African print somethings I could maybe even wear beyond pregnancy.

My grandmother was, to anyone who knew her, a very very stylish lady even well into her goto-ness (grandmotherness). ALL, if not 95.9% of her clothes were African print dresses, skirts and tops and whatnots from fabric she'd collected from all her travels. She visited my mother in all the countries she lived in and did quite a bit of traveling herself to others. Those were a lot of countries and she had a LOT of clothes. Like the rooms that were ours when we were little have closets full of her clothes. Her room's entire wall of closet had more clothes....I'll just leave it at a lot. 

In being my grandmother's handbag when I was little and well into my adulthood while she was alive one of the things we enjoyed doing together when I'd be in Zim is going to her tailor maNdlovu. They had a very special relationship so while I was home in July I took a day where I picked 2 of my grandmother's outfits whose print I liked and took those to maNdlovu to upcycle them. At this point it had been a year since my grandmother's passing and when i walked into her shop she started crying....and then I did too. I think especially that I was pregnant must have really touched her because she knows how my gogo would jokingly nag me about her great-grandchildren. MaNdlovu immediately recognized the outfits I brought because she'd sowed them.

I had a couple of pictures for what I envisioned and of course she had to chime in about the length of the dress and the snugness of the dress I wanted...i had to sternly, but lovingly remind her she was not making a dress for gogo anymore and that gogo would have wanted me to wear whatever the hell i want. After all, in her own heyday, my gogo was a stylish shasha (fly girl)!

Cut a long story short, today's #afrofoto is what maNdlovu made. It's cute in and of itself, but sooooooo far from what I showed her. She is one of those tailors, especially when you are first going to her, you need to go back to 7 times for the first 5 things she makes for you before she learns you. I'm glad it managed to be wearable post part.

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*@afropolitaine*