A new range of leather jackets, aimed at inspiring a sense of collective identity in members of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC), has been branded a crime against taste by catwalk critics.
The 19 jackets in the range, in the ANC colors of black, green and gold, have been variously likened to uniforms worn by children, drum majorettes and the crew of Star Trek’s Starship Enterprise.
South African President Jacob Zuma may have started the designer jacket trend at the ANC’s victory party after last year’s election, when he wore a cream and olive green striped number. The design is now being marketed as the “President No. 1.”
This is relatively conservative by the standard of the range, which have the lurid greens and yellows of a luminous safety bib to be worn only after dark. They range in price from 1,620 rand (US$212) to 1,944 rand — well beyond the reach of most ANC supporters.
“Oh dear,” said Jeremy Gordin, who has written a biography of Zuma. “I suppose the best that one can say is that the jackets could have been worse. A couple are almost wearable, I suppose. One looks like the kind of shirt Nelson Mandela would wear on an off-day, when his best ones haven’t come back from the laundry.”
“And then there’s one that seems to be a straightforward black leather jacket — for a long-time de rigueur wear for ANC members anyway. But the others are pretty scary,” he said.
The clothes have met with a lukewarm reception all round.
Thula Sindi, a leading fashion designer, told the BBC: “I wouldn’t be caught dead in them. It all just looks like patchwork. I don’t think anybody younger than 40 would wear that, out of fear of being ridiculed.”
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