University of Cape Town

Town Cape of University Sartorial Disruption An investigation of the histories, dispositions, and related museum practices of the dress/fashion collections at Iziko Museums as a means to re-imagine and re-frame the sartorial in the museum. Erica de Greef The copyright of this thesis vests in the author. No quotation from it or information derivedTown from it is to be published without full acknowledgement of the source. The thesis is to be used for private study or non- commercial research purposes Capeonly. of Published by the University of Cape Town (UCT) in terms of the non-exclusive license granted to UCT by the author. University Thesis presented for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of African Studies University of Cape Town January 2019 “Clothes are people to Diana Vreeland. Her interest in them is deep and human” (Ballard, 1960:293, cited in Clark, De la Haye & Horsley. 2014:26) This text represents a full and original submission for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Cape Town. This copy has been supplied for the purpose of research, on the understanding that it is copyright material, and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgment. Cover Image: SAM14268: Beadwork Detail. Photograph by Andrew Juries, Courtesy of Andrew Juries. iii iv Abstract In this thesis I investigate and interrogate the historical and current compositions, conditions and dispositions of three collections containing sartorial objects of three formerly separate museums – the South African Museum, the South African National Gallery and the South African Cultural History Museum. Although these three museums were amalgamated in 1999, along with eight other Western Cape institutions to form Iziko Museums, each separate sartorial ‘collection’ retains the effects of the divergent museal practices imposed on its objects over time. I employ the concept of ‘fashion’ in this thesis both to refer to the objects of the study, as well as to the socially-determined set of ideas and ideals surrounding notions such as taste, aesthetics, belonging and modernity. Sartorial objects in museums present strong physical evidence of both deeply personal and extremely public relationships as the traces of and capacity for embodiment imbue these objects with metonymic, subjective and archival capacities. In addition, I employ the contracted form dress/fashion to trouble the commonly held separate notions of ‘fashion’ as a modern, dynamic and largely Western system, and ‘dress’ as ‘traditional’ and an unchanging African sartoriality. I contend that through the terms ‘dress’ and ‘fashion’ – two opposing and segregating tropes still largely present in South African museums – the forms of agency, mutability and historicity applied to Western ‘fashion’ objects, have been and continue to be denied in the collection, classification and curation of African ‘dress’. I use a sartorial focus to unpack the development of and conditions pertaining to each of the museums in this study, namely an ethnographic museum, a cultural history museum and a fine arts museum. I interrogate the three separate phases of dress/fashion objects in these museums, that is, their entry into the collections, their classification and their display. Following each historical investigation, I use a single object-focused strategy to reflect on the specific conditions, dispositions and limitations of these three separate sartorial ‘archives’. I choose to identify and analyse all the trousers found across the three collections (as well as some significant examples that were excluded), as these particular sartorial objects both reflect and offer critical insights into distinct, and often divisive, definitions of gender, politics and socio-cultural attitudes, many of which also changed over time. I offer close readings of a number of trousers (both in and absent from these collections) that make evident the ways in which these divisions have been scripted into the taxonomies, disciplines and exhibitions at Iziko Museums. These practical and conceptual divisions perpetuate the artificial segregation of these museum objects. The divisions are also reflective of wider divisive museal practices that persist despite the efforts of Iziko Museums to transform and integrate their practices and their collections. Drawing on the sartorial as an alternative archive I am able to show the types of histories avowed and disavowed by different museal practices. In addition, the close readings expose the distinct and persistent colonial and apartheid underpinnings of sartorial classification and representation across the three Iziko Museums’ collections almost twenty years after the merger. The trousers readings furthermore, make a number of decolonial affordances evident, as the objects reflect not only alternate histories, but also shared pasts prompting alternative contemporary interpretations. Via the dress/fashion collections, this thesis offers a sartorial approach to ‘decolonising’ the museum. This includes both a reframing of various museal practices and principles, and a contemporary re-imagining of histories and their related identity narratives. Despite contemporary critiques and attempts to transform the disciplinary practices, and various cultural and social distinctions still present in the collections and exhibitions at Iziko Museums, segregation and problematic hierarchies still persist. I show how when considered as an archive, the sartorial makes evident other histories, relationships and interpretations. This approach can contribute towards a new, interdisciplinary dress/fashion museology as both a means of disruption and revision v at Iziko Museums, contributing towards new contemporary capacities to curate the sartorial offering alternate, decolonial interpretations of past, present and future South African identity narratives. Acknowledgments A thesis presents the work of a single author, but it too reflects the intellectual, creative, and critical engagement of a wide range of fellow participants, influential in both small and significant ways – words of encouragement offered on the steps of a research library, or contributing to the intellectual focus, argument, thoughts and diverse developments of this academic journey. Firstly, I would like to thank my two supervisors National Research Foundation (NRF) Chair of the Archives and Public Culture Research Initiative (APC), Professor Carolyn Hamilton, and African Studies and Archaeology Professor Nick Shepherd who both helped shape this thesis. My heartfelt gratitude goes to Professor Hamilton both for the NRF funding and for her intellectual support provided throughout the writing of this PhD. Professor Hamilton not only demanded intellectual rigour; she also provided supportive direction, paid critical attention to my language and logics, and offered sharp insights into my specific field of enquiry, ensuring the development of this thesis from concept to fruition. I also received further financial support from the University of Cape Town for research and travel, for which I am grateful. Secondly, I would to thank my partner Joanne Bloch, for her critical concerns, endless patience, sound editorial advice and ongoing support throughout the writing of this thesis. Her capacity for simultaneously navigating many cultural and intellectual terrains enabled me to imagine what it could be to contribute, in my own unique way, original ideas to my field of enquiry. I would like to thank my family who made me feel I can do this. I would also like to thank those I consider my ‘other’ families. I would not have started this journey of investigation without the support of the many fashion designers, makers, friends, colleagues and students that I got to know from my years at LISOF, Johannesburg. It is for their future inspirations, aspirations and continued development that this work is intended. My colleague and mentor for many years Mike Thoms encouraged me to undertake a Masters in Fine Arts at the University of Witwatersrand, which led me to begin this PhD a few years later at the University of Cape Town. Thanks too, to my friend Brenton Maart who encouraged me to believe in my capacity to undertake this academic journey, and who introduced me to the dynamic, and critically engaging, interdisciplinary environment of the APC at the University of Cape Town. I am indebted to my intellectual family at the APC, many of whom offered invaluable feedback and support at the biannual research workshops and seminars. Lastly, I acknowledge the conceptual and critical contributions of my international fashion studies colleagues, many of whom followed my research with interest and attention, encouraging my ongoing participation in symposia and inviting contributions to book chapters, journals and various online platforms. With a research focus on museum collections of dress and fashion, I would like to deeply thank individual past and present staff at Iziko Museums for their interest, attention and contributions. Particular thanks goes to collections manager Lailah Hisham; curators Wieke van Delen, Carol Kaufmann, Esther Esmyol and Gerald Klinghardt; conservation assistants Ntombovuyo Tywakadi, Ayesha Hendricks, Fatima February and June Hosford; and, directors Patricia Davison, Marilyn Martin, Lalou Meltzer and Paul Tichmann. An enormous thanks also goes to Andrew Juries for the photographs that form such an essential part of the thesis, and to Mandy Darling for her talent and attention to the layout and

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